4 Nations Face-Off revitalizes hockey betting ahead of final - ESPN

In lieu of traditional All-Star festivities, the NHL opted to put on an international best-on-best tournament this season. The resulting 4 Nations Face-Off has been a resounding success, attracting massive viewership and surprising cultural relevance, which has extended to the sports betting realm.

Sportsbooks across the United States report that the 4 Nations games thus far have outperformed average regular-season NHL contests. DraftKings says that its four most-bet hockey games of the season have been from the tournament, while FanDuel says that 4 Nations contests are averaging over six times as many bets as an average NHL game this regular season.

In particular, Saturday's first USA-Canada matchup — an epic 3-1 victory for the Americans — was, bar none, the most-bet hockey game of the season. FanDuel says that the contest saw 13 times more bets than all of the 3-on-3 games that made up last year's NHL All-Star event combined, and 11 times more bets than an average NHL game this regular season.

Caesars Sportsbook's head of hockey Karry Shreeve says that the book is handling «seven to 10 times» more money for each game, with the first North American rivalry showdown bringing in even more.

«That game we saw just as much handle as we would in a Stanley Cup game,» Shreeve told ESPN. «I think there's a chance that for Thursday's final, we could get up to almost Game 7 numbers, which is just incredible in terms of what you're asking for in the middle of February for hockey. I mean this is completely unexpected and certainly unprecedented.»

While the storied USA-Canada rivalry always raises the stakes, this year's iteration seems particularly heated given the long layoff of best-on-best action, «words that have been