2025 Ice Hockey World Championship: Predictions & Tips

The 2025 IIHF World Championship starts on Friday, May 9th, so it's time for MightyTips experts to preview the tournament in Sweden and Denmark, predict the outcome, and find some value in long-term bets. The group stage will end on May 20th, while the playoff round starts two days later. We took the odds from our well-known and trusted partner, Lunubet. You might also be interested in our list of the other best ice hockey betting sites.

We start with the Stockholm group, where we have Canada, the leaders in the IIHF rankings and the favourites to lift the trophy at 2.32. The Canadians won't have any problems qualifying for the playoffs, presenting an all-NHL line-up with Sidney Crosby and recently retired Marc-André Fleury as their main stars. Finland, the champions in 2022, should qualify from the group too, as do the Swedes. Last year, they claimed bronze, finally winning their first medal since 2018, and the home crowd will be a significant advantage for them in 2025.

It promises to be a serious battle for the fourth spot between Slovakia and Latvia, who shocked the world in 2023 by taking the bronze. The Slovaks will have big names on the team, while Latvia was left without a single NHL player and has five debutants on its squad. We can't see Austria, France, or Slovenia battling for the top four, although each of the teams can obviously bring a surprise. Yet recently promoted Slovenia will go back to Division I at 1.55.

Prop bets

We'll start by tipping Latvia to qualify for the playoffs. Their battle with Slovakia will be a toe-to-toe scrap, and the odds of 2.65 look too good to pass by. Slovenia finishing last in the group at 1.55 is another decent bet, but the odds are obviously not ideal. Finally, we think it's worth betting half a unit on Finland to win the group at 6.40.

Here we have the Czechs, who started a bit slow last year but ended up with gold medals on home soil. Switzerland, finalists last year, are always dangerous with their pragmatic style of play. While the USA don't have many NHL stars in the squad, this team should also go through to the playoff round without suffering too much.

The bookies see the Germans as slight favourites to leapfrog Denmark and finish in the top 4. However, this battle shouldn't be even close. Germany took silver two years ago and are constantly participating in the playoffs, while the Danes reached that stage just twice, in 2010 and 2016, losing both times in the quarterfinal. Germany's roster should be stronger, too, and in this case, the home advantage shouldn't play that big of a part. Hungary are clear favourites to be relegated at 1.55.

Prop bets

MightyTips believes Germany to reach the playoffs at 1.68 is a bargain that you simply can't miss, and they can easily finish top of the group, which promises to be a very even one. We'd also suggest betting Kazakhstan earning over 3,5 points at 1.85, as they should beat Hungary and will have their chances against both Norway and Denmark.

When analyzing the betting markets at Lunubet, we saw a chance to bet on the team conceding the fewest goals at the group stage. MightyTips pundits believe it's worth betting half a unit on Switzerland at 9.00, given their unopened play style and other low-scoring teams in group B. We also like Finland to finish in the top 3 at 2.75 and have some revenge after being knocked out at the quarterfinal stage last year. That's all for now, but we'll return ahead of the playoffs with a more detailed look at the last eight teams in contention.