In the opinion of many a sports writer, one of the major obstacles to making Ice Hockey more popular in the United States has been the difficulties involved in wagering on the sport. Recognizing this, the NHL has now taken a lesson from the ongoing hit the NCAA has with the March Madness brackets and instituted a set of brackets of their own.
Check out the National Hockey League’s home page NHL.com and you will find a league sponsored set of brackets from which fans can pick the series winners, the number of games and, as a tie-breaker, the total goals scored in the Stanley Cup Final. It looks very similar to the set up the NCAA uses for basketball.
Why did they do this? Simple, money, profits and the almighty bottom line. It is generally considered that opening up the Stanley Cup Playoffs to more wagering opportunities will almost certainly contribute to the popularity of the sport across the nation. Fans with a few bucks riding on the match are much more likely to go out to the arena or at least follow the action on TV.
To add to the excitement, the NHL has once again followed the model of the college basketball finals and locked in the seeds through to the Stanley Cup Finals. It does not work out so well for teams like the Boston Bruins and a few others, but, no system is 100% and this move looks to have the potential to raise revenues in general as the popularity of the sport increases.
So now office pools across the country are already being set up for the Stanley Cup Finals since, for the first time, folks can now run a bracket pick’em pool just like for the March Madness Tourney. How about that?
Gamblers all know that Ice Hockey is one of the most difficult sports to wager on. Hell, most of them can’t even follow that little black puck around the ice. In addition to increasing divisional rivalries, putting in the brackets will certainly simplify the process and make the sport more accessible to casual fans and bettors everywhere.
It is estimated that over $2.5 Billion was wagered illegally on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament which was one of the reasons that the TV ratings were so high. Folks with wagers on the matches all tuned in. The NHL would dearly love to get some of those same sports fans more interested in the Stanley Cup action.
