An NHL regular season game can end three ways: in regulation, in a five-minute 3-on-3 overtime, or in a shootout. The standard moneyline treats all three as one result and pays you for a shootout win the same as a 5-1 blowout. The 60 minute line, also called the three-way line or regulation line, stops the clock at the end of the third period and treats the tie as its own outcome. Same game, two different bets, and the difference in price is worth understanding before you take either.
How Overtime and the Shootout Work
Since the 2015-16 season, a regular season game tied after 60 minutes goes to a five-minute sudden-death period played three skaters a side. If nobody scores, it goes to a shootout: three shooters per team, then sudden-death rounds until one team leads. The winner gets two points in the standings and the loser gets one, which is why coaches are happy to play for the tie late in a close third period. Playoff games are different. There is no shootout and no 3-on-3. Overtime is 20-minute periods at five a side, sudden death, as many as it takes.
For bettors, 3-on-3 did what the league wanted: it moved results out of the shootout. In 2024-25, 71.6% of games that reached overtime were decided in the five minutes, a record for the format. That season had 77 shootouts in total, against an average of about 97 a season since 3-on-3 arrived.
What the Moneyline Includes
The moneyline pays if your team wins by any means, in any period, by any score, shootout included. That is convenient, and it is why the moneyline is the default hockey bet. The cost is that a meaningful slice of games are decided by what is close to a coin flip. 3-on-3 favors skill more than the shootout did, but a five-minute open-ice period and a shootout still carry far more variance than 60 minutes of five-a-side hockey. The better team wins overtime more often than not, but not by much, and the moneyline price has to carry that.
What the 60 Minute Line Changes
The 60 minute line has three outcomes: home team wins in regulation, away team wins in regulation, or the game is tied after three periods. Because the tie is now a separate result that pays nobody on the two sides, both team prices get longer. A team that is -150 on the moneyline might be about -110 on the 60 minute line, with the tie around +300 or longer. You are being paid more to take on the risk that the game you called correctly over 60 minutes is wiped out by a tie.
One way to think about it: the moneyline is the 60 minute line plus a bet on the overtime coin flip at whatever odds the book builds in. If you think your team is better over 60 minutes but have no opinion about 3-on-3, the 60 minute line is the cleaner expression of that opinion. If you think your team is better in overtime too (a strong power play unit, elite skaters who thrive in open ice), the moneyline captures that and the 60 minute line throws it away.
Betting the Tie
The tie is the forgotten side of the three-way market, and it is where the price is often most interesting. A tie pays whenever the game reaches overtime, no matter who wins after that. Games between two evenly matched defensive teams, or two teams happy to take the single point, reach overtime more often than a book’s standard tie price implies. The tie is a long shot in any single game, but at +300 or better it only needs to hit one time in four to break even, and a handful of matchups each week sit near that line.
The caution is sample size. You need a lot of tie bets to know whether you have an edge, and the variance on a +300 bet is severe. Treat the tie as a specific play on a specific matchup, not a standing strategy.
Totals and Props Have Their Own Overtime Rules
Overtime goals count toward the game total. Shootout goals do not count as goals, but the winning team is credited with one goal for scoring purposes, so a 2-2 game that goes to a shootout ends 3-2 and lands on five, not four. That one credited goal decides a lot of totals at 4.5 and 5.5. Most books also post a separate regulation total if you want to strip overtime out entirely. Player props usually include overtime but not the shootout, and the rules vary by book, so read them before betting a goal scorer prop on a game you expect to be tight.
Which Line to Use
- Moneyline: a favorite you like in every phase, or an underdog where you want the overtime coin flip on your side at plus money.
- 60 minute line: a team you like over three periods with no opinion about overtime, or a favorite whose moneyline price is too high to pay.
- Tie: two low-event teams, a game that matters to both in the standings, and a price at +300 or better.
The three-way market is thinner than the moneyline and the margin is wider, so shop it. Bovada’s live betting is a good place for this market because a game tied with eight minutes left reprices the tie in real time, and that is often when the three-way price is most out of line with the game on the ice. See our sportsbook reviews for how each book handles these markets. All five sit outside US state regulation, and whether you can use them depends on where you live.