Three-way match result is the default market, which means a draw is a live outcome and not an edge case. Totals sit low compared with other sports, so a single goal moves a 2.5 line further than a single point moves a basketball line. Asian handicaps split the draw away and are usually the tighter-priced version of the same opinion.

Most hockey moneylines settle including overtime and the shootout, which is a rule worth reading before you assume a tie pays anything. Puck lines are fixed at 1.5 rather than floating, so the price does all the work. Empty-net goals distort totals late and are the single biggest reason an over lands after looking dead.

Spreads move on rotation news more than on form. A rested starter list published ninety minutes before tip can shift a line by four points. Totals are high enough that a single possession barely registers, which makes basketball the sport where small price differences compound fastest across a season.

The listed pitcher rule decides whether your bet stands if a starter is scratched. Run lines are set at 1.5 and often price the favourite as an underdog, which confuses people until they notice how many games finish inside one run. Weather and park dimensions matter more here than in any other sport on this list.

Key numbers are real. Three and seven appear in final margins often enough that moving a spread from -3 to -3.5 is a meaningful change, not a rounding. Teasers exist because of those numbers. Most alternate markets are just the same opinion repriced around them.

Retirement rules vary and they are the first thing to check. Some books void a match if a player retires in set one, others settle on completed sets, others require one full set. Set and game handicaps are the main alternative to a straight winner, and they punish the assumption that a favourite wins comfortably.

Series are best-of formats, so map handicaps are closer to a hockey puck line than a football spread. Rosters change between tournaments and sometimes between days, and a stand-in changes a team more than an injury changes a football team. Postponements are common enough that void rules deserve a read.