What Are Teaser Sports Bets?

A teaser is one of many sports betting terms that bettors should know to increase their chances of winning money.

A teaser is a wager in which a bettor adjusts multiple spreads or totals in an advantageous manner. This adjustment comes on the sports betting site or app. A teaser is like a parlay in the sense that it must include multiple legs.

There are adjusted lines on most sportsbooks where you can place single bets, but the odds will be too juiced for any meaningful payout. Teasers still give bettors a larger payday with the adjusted lines if the legs in the wager come to fruition.

Teasers can help you win more frequently, but they don’t necessarily increase your winnings.

Continue reading to learn how this happens.

There are multiple styles of teasers, but the most common is a six-point teaser.

NFL betting sites will typically offer six, 6.5, seven, and 10-point teasers. The catch with larger teaser adjustments is that the odds are less favorable and may force bettors to add legs to yield a decent payout.

Teasers must include at least two bets on most sports betting platforms. The more legs added to a teaser, the higher the payout.

This is the same as parlays. The larger the wager in a parlay, the more significant the payout.

The difference with teasers is that the bettor has a slightly better deal compared to parlays.

The important thing to remember with teasers is that as with parlays, every leg must hit for the bet to be successful. This is the difficult part about teasers because even with adjusted lines, it’s still very hard to win in sports betting.

If you have a four-leg teaser but only three of the bets are successful, the whole bet loses.

Teasers can be placed for all sports, but the most viable usage is in football. Let’s take a look at an example from the NFL.

Let’s say the Philadelphia Eagles are +1.5 against the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots are +2.5 against the Miami Dolphins. A bettor likes these two lines but wants more protection, so they decide to place a two-leg six-point teaser.

They move the Eagles’ line from +1.5 to +7.5 and the Patriots’ line from +2.5 to +8.5. The odds will vary from book to book, but a six-point teaser will be approximately -110.

For the teaser to be successful, Philadelphia must be within seven points and New England must be within eight. If one of the teams isn’t within this window, the bet will lose.

Sportsbooks will vary their individual odds and payouts on teasers. However, there are some consensus odds that will be close on every book for teasers with various points and legs.

Spreads and totals don’t always have a hook, so they can be on round numbers.

If all the bets in a teaser push, the original stake is refunded. If one of the bets pushes but the rest are successful, the odds will decline to reflect the new odds.

A team in the NFL may be favored by three or six points, so when these spreads are teased they’re also whole numbers. This means a team could “push” if it lands on the exact number. If one of the bets in a teaser pushes but the rest win, that leg is removed from the group and the odds decline.

For example, if a three-leg teaser that was +160 had one portion push, the odds would drop from +160 to -115. This is a substantial shift, but it doesn’t mean that the wager loses.

A push is a win in the betting world because a bettor’s risk isn’t automatically lost. It takes a complete loss in a teaser for it not to count. If every leg in a teaser pushes, the entire stake would be refunded.

Online sportsbooks utilize off-the-board teasers, which take current spreads and totals to create adjusted lines. As platforms look to compete in the market, teasers are evolving with different point amounts. However, the traditional six and seven-point teasers are staples.

To place a teaser on most online sportsbooks, you add multiple spreads or totals into your bet slip. Once the picks are selected, your bet slip will have a teaser option. Click the teaser option, and you will get to pick from the default modes.

Most books allow you to adjust spreads by as much as 10 points and will also give you the chance to add unlimited legs. More legs mean higher odds, adding risk but also increasing the potential payout.

Not all legal sports betting states give bettors the ability to place wagers online. Some jurisdictions make you place bets at retail sportsbooks, and it’s just as simple.

A bettor can go to an attendant and ask for the teaser of their choice. Teasers can also be placed at various betting kiosks.

Teasers can give bettors a better chance against the house compared to wagering traditional lines.

However, there are different strategies one must follow to potentially win on teasers. Teasers can be placed for a variety of sports, but football gives bettors the best shake.

In basketball, teasers start at four points, which isn’t much protection. If a team is going to lose in basketball, it will likely be by a larger margin. This is because it’s much easier to score in basketball than in football. It’s also very easy to get hurt by foul shots at the end of games and lose teasers by a narrow margin.

In college football and the NFL, it’s harder to lose teasers because of the game’s scoring system. There are key numbers in football that don’t apply to basketball. The critical points in the NFL are three, six, seven and 10. NFL games are frequently decided by these margins, so knowing this information helps bettors win teasers.

When betting on football, it’s important to tease through these numbers. If you take a team from -3 to +3, it doesn’t do much because a critical number wasn’t crossed. People have different thoughts on teasing through zero when it comes to football. NFL games rarely end in ties, so going through this number can be a waste in most cases.

That said, moving through zero can be beneficial as long as the teaser also crosses through a critical number. It can be smart to take a short favorite to a small underdog if the bet also crosses through the critical number of three.

Outside of the NFL and college football, it’s better to tease professional sports. The same is true when it comes to college basketball and the NBA.

It’s always better to tease pro teams because the volatility is smaller. College athletes may get paid now, but they’re still amateurs at heart, and that means the mistakes are heightened. In the professional ranks, the talent difference between teams is much smaller. This creates less variability and, in turn, helps teaser bets hit at a higher rate.

Teasers can also be applied to totals (over/under). These are often underused compared to spreads, but it doesn’t mean totals teasers aren’t useful.

When betting totals teasers, it’s best to stick to the NFL as well. The key numbers to watch are 37, 41, 44, 47 and 51. With these numbers, it’s always best to tease these numbers down and play the Over. Teasing totals up and playing the under isn’t advised in teaser betting for totals.

A pleaser is the opposite of a teaser. It’s when a bettor adjusts spreads or totals in a disadvantageous direction. Pleasers are tougher to hit, but they have longer odds and higher payouts.

Teasers are viable, but sometimes it’s better to be risky. Bookmakers spend hours studying lines and using computer systems to predict them accurately. However, this doesn’t mean that all lines are accurate, and this gives bettors a chance to take advantage of errors.

Bettors can adjust the spread in their favor but also in favor of the sportsbooks. The reward for adjusting the lines away from a desirable point is the odds increasing. These teasers are less likely to hit, but a bettor can win a vast amount of money with a smaller wager.

Let’s take a look at the opposite of our teaser example from earlier in the guide. The Eagles are +1.5 against the Cowboys and the Patriots are +2.5 against the Dolphins. A bettor likes these two lines but thinks they have the capability to win by even more than their original spreads. A six-point pleaser is placed, and Philadelphia goes from +1.5 to -5.5 while New England goes from +2.5 to -4.5.

The odds of the teaser taking the spreads in the reverse direction was -110, but the pleaser’s odds when the lines move in a disadvantageous direction are now +600. The bet is much harder to hit, but if both teams come through it will be a significant payday.