2016 Ice Hockey World Championship Preview

The Ice Hockey World Championship is an annual tournament prepared by the International Ice Hockey Federation. By all standards, the Ice Hockey World Championship presents the highest level of global ice hockey competitions. The 1920 tournament is considered as the official first Ice Hockey World Championship even though it was played as part of the summer Olympics held that year.

After this maiden tournament, the ice hockey championship was played as part of the winter Olympics up until 1968. The winner of the Olympics tournament was therefore regarded as the overall world champion. After 1968 the tournament was remodeled and it became a stand-alone championship independent of the Olympic Games.

2016 Championship

The 2016 version of the world championship will be hosted by Russia and will run from 6th to 22nd May. This decision was made following a bidding process where the other competing countries for hosting the tournament were Denmark and Ukraine. Russia has previously played host to the world championship with the latest being in 2007.

As presented in the bidding process, Russia will host the tournament in two venues in two different cities. The first venue will be the Megasport Arena in Moscow which has a seating capacity of 13,577. The second venue will be the Ice Palace in Saint Petersburg which has a smaller seating capacity of 12,300.

2016 Championship Fixtures and Betting

The format for the 2016 tournament will remain unchanged from the one used in the previous championships. In all, 16 teams will take part and they will be divided into two groups, A and B, for an initial preliminary round. The seeding for these two groups is based on the results of the 2015 world championships.

Group A will consist of eight teams namely;

• Canada
• Finland
• United States
• Slovakia
• Belarus
• France
• Germany
• Hungary

Group B will hold the remaining eight teams namely;

• Russia
• Sweden
• Czech Republic
• Switzerland
• Latvia
• Norway
• Denmark
• Kazakhstan

The top four qualifying teams in each group advance to the quarter finals. The quarter finals games are played cross over. The bottom two teams from the 16 teams will get dropped to the lower Division 1 Group A for the upcoming 2017 world championships.

With a range offers and extensive pre-match and In-Play markets, Everygame is a great place for all your Ice Hockey betting.

The odds for Russia stand at 2.75 (7/4) while Canada's are at 3.00 (2/1). The third most successful team in the history of the tournament Czech Republic stands at 11.0 (10/1). Other likely contenders to watch include Sweden with a 6.50 (11/2) and Finland with 9.00 (8/1).

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Please note: all odds accurate as of 20.04.2016, 12:00 GMT+3 and are subject to change. All tips on our site are based on the personal opinion of the author. No success is guaranteed. Please gamble responsibly. 18+.