Finland Liiga

Overview

The SM-Liiga, Liiga, or Finnish Elite League, is the professional hockey league based out of Finland. The premier Finnish league was founded in 1975, and is one of the six founding leagues of the Champions Hockey League of the IIHF. The SM-Liiga is one of the only ice hockey leagues that use a promotion and relegation system (like what you’d find in European soccer leagues). Teams that perform poorly and place last will be relegated to the Mestis (the second tier of the Finnish hockey league).

There are 15 teams in the SM-Liiga, and each team will play 60 games – technically a quadruple round-robin format. The traditional point system that you’d see in soccer leagues, which offers three points for a win, an overtime win to be two points and a loss worth zero is used in this league. The six top teams in the league will head to the playoffs where they enter the quarterfinals automatically.

Teams are battling for the Kanada-malja, the championship trophy, and the ‘Stanley Cup’ of the Finnish league as well as gold medals.

Finland Liiga Teams

Oy HIFK Hockey Ab
HPK Liiga Oy
Ilves-Hockey Oy
Jukurit HC Oy
JYP Jyvaskyla
KalPa Hockey Oy
KooKoo Hockey Oy
Oulun Karpat Oy
Rauman Lukko Oy
Lahden Pelicans Oy
Liiga SaiPa Oy
Hockey-Team Vaasan Sport Oy
Tamhockey Oy
HC TPS Turku Oy
HC Assat Pori Oy

The team with the most titles in the Finland Liiga are the Tappara (Tamhockey Oy) with 14. Throughout the season and the even more so in the playoffs, you will find a great selection of Finland Liiga betting odds. These odds will tell you the amount of winnings you could take home, or how likely it is for your bet to win. Depending on your odds preferences, you may view the odds in a few different display formats on the sportsbook – there are American odds which typically are presented in a (+190/-110) format, decimal odds or fractional odds.

When it comes to these Finnish SM-Liiga odds, you will want to learn how to bet on ice hockey first. The most basic ice hockey betting option is the moneyline wager, which is simply picking the outright winner.

If you want to make things a little more interesting, you can find some Finnish Liiga point spreads on the desired game. The point spread allows the underdog an imaginary lead before the game starts, usually a low number or one or two goals, which means the underdog needs to win or lose by less than that number of goals. You can also bet on the favored team, and they will need to win by more than that number of goals.

Totals betting allows you to bet on the final outcome, but without picking between the two teams. You are betting on the total amount of goals that both teams will score collectively. You simply decide if you think the total will be over or under the set betting line. If you’re looking at a game and the total is 4.5, you will have to choose if you think the over will hit, which means you think there will be more than five goals, or the under which means you think there will be less than four goals total.

Prop bets are a fun ice hockey betting option, but for these international leagues, we don’t have a ton of options in the United States. Luckily, we offer a handful of props on our sportsbook that you wouldn’t find on any other U.S. sportsbooks.

Very few sportsbooks in the United States offer a variety of international sports – especially when it comes to ice hockey. Thankfully, we at BetUS offer odds on all Finland SM-Liiga games throughout the season. If you’re a fan of the NHL and want to bet on some more ice hockey options, we recommend checking out the Finnish SM-Liiga.