Vegas Odds Now Against Next NHL Game Being Played Before August 1

With no end in sight to the league shutdown that has now stretched into its fourth week, the odds of the next NHL game being played on or before August 1 now sit at a lengthened +100 in NHL futures betting, according to the folks at Sports Betting Online.

Simplifying the money line, you would need to place a $100 bet to win $100 for games to resume before August 1st. You would need to place a $140 bet to win $100 if you wanted to bet games begin after August 1st.

As we reported this weekend, President Donald Trump tried to put a positive spin on the crisis on Saturday, following a conference call with the heads of every North American major sports league. The president suggested that sports would return “sooner rather than later”, and reiterated his belief that the 2020 NFL season would start on time.

However, in another press conference held later on Saturday, California Governor Gavin Newsom stated that he does not expect normal NFL or college football games to be played in front of full stadiums in the state of California later in the year.

“I’m not anticipating that happening in this state,” Newsom said according to SF Gate. “We’ve all seen the headlines over the last couple days in Asia where they opening up certain businesses and now they’re starting to roll back those openings because they’re starting seeing some spread and there’s a boomerang. One has to be very cautious here, one has to be careful not to overpromise.”

On a side note, if you are just itching for action, you can now place bets on which NHL arena sponsors will have a better day on Wall Street,

If NHL games are to fully resume with fans in the stands, one can safely assume that the actual return timeline will be heavily based on the recovery of the hardest hit NHL markets, two of them being New York and California.

However, games without fans in the stands could likely begin much sooner, if the NHL is interested in going that route. One could also envision a hybrid response, where the 2019-2020 season in concluded in a modified format (no fans in stands, or centralized sites deemed safe), then the 2020-2021 season played under traditional circumstances (fans in stands)

As for the latest odds to win the Stanley Cup, the Capitals are how at 12 to 1. Boston is the favorite at 5 to 1.