What is a teaser bet? How to bet a teaser explained

A teaser is a type of parlay in which a bettor can adjust the spread for all of the games involved by a certain amount of points. Similar to a parlay, each leg must be a winner in order for the overall teaser to cash. The payout will be less than a standard parlay because a bettor is increasing the likelihood of their success by adjusting the spreads.

In betting, a teaser is a parlay in which the spreads for all the included games are adjusted to improve their chances of success. A teaser can include as few as two teams, or it can include the entire NFL schedule. Teasers are essentially a parlay with less risk, and the chances of winning are improved by the adjusted spreads, but the payout (odds) decreases. Like a normal parlay, every single leg must win for a teaser to cash. If just one of the legs is a loser, the bet is unsuccessful.

A teaser bet works by adjusting the point spread in multiple different games by a certain amount of points. Football is the most popular sport to tease, and most sportsbooks offer between six-point and seven-point teasers. Some shops also have 10-point teasers available, but there is generally a limit of only including three legs. Basketball teasers are generally available between four and six points. In any case, you can adjust the spread to increase the points an underdog is getting or decrease the number of points a favorite is giving. You could even tease a favorite such that it ends up getting points. For example, if the Seattle Seahawks are -3 favorites over the Arizona Cardinals, you could tease Seattle to +3. If the Jacksonville Jaguars are +5 underdogs against the Tennessee Titans, you could tease Jacksonville to +11. If Seattle loses by one and Jacksonville loses by 10, for example, that two-team, six-point teaser is a winner.

A teaser is a type of parlay, and its payout is similar. If any leg of the teaser pushes, the overall teaser becomes one leg smaller. A nine-team teaser becomes an eight-team teaser, a four-team teaser becomes a three-team teaser, and a two-team teaser becomes a single bet. Any number of pushed legs is possible, so a 12-team teaser would become a 10-team teaser if two of the legs push. The odds and winnings of a successful teaser will readjust accordingly when the overall size of it changes. Like parlays, the return for a teaser increases as you add additional legs.

Teasers can be made in person at casinos or via online sportsbooks offering such options. At a physical casino, teaser cards (in addition to standard parlay cards) are generally available for you to fill out with all of the necessary information (the teams involved, the amount points teased on either a point spread or game total, etc.) before visiting the sportsbook desk. You can usually tell a ticket writer all the necessary information regarding your teaser and have them fill it out for you, but that can be more time-consuming. As for the online options, some websites will have teasers as a tab within a parlay section, while others will have a devoted teaser section on the bet slip. Like with any sportsbook and bet, odds for a teaser may differ slightly from book to book, so it is worth shopping around at multiple sportsbooks to locate the best value.

Teaser odds will be provided by the online sportsbook of choice or at the casino desk. The payout will increase with more teams included or when choosing a smaller number of points. A standard two-team, six-point football teaser generally comes with -110 odds. When you increase this teaser to seven-points, you are improving your chances of winning, so the payout becomes smaller (approximately -130). A three-team, six-point teaser may pay out at +180, while a four-team, six-point play may get you +300 odds. With 10-pointers, a two-team effort will generally pay out -210. A three-teamer may be -110; an eight-teamer may be +465; a 15-teamer may have +2850 odds. In basketball, a two-team, 4.5-point teaser would probably have the standard -110 payout. A four-team play with that number of points may come with +250 odds.

All teasers are similar because they include multiple games (like a parlay), and the spreads for each game move the same amount of points. A standard teaser is when the bettor moves each spread by a modest number of points, such as six in football. A super teaser involves up to as many as 10 points and includes at least four teams in most cases. The payout is not as much when the points are increased, but the payout increases as more teams become involved.

The most effective strategy for teaser betting is football games and moving the spreads through key numbers. The most important key numbers in football are three and seven because they are the most common point differentials in a football game. In a six-point teaser, the most valuable line moves take the spread through both three and seven. For example, you can tease an underdog from +2 to +8 or a favorite from -8 to -2. Ten is also a key number, so teasing an underdog from +6 to +12 is a great strategy that goes through two key numbers. Football is generally safer and more popular than basketball in the teasers market because basketball does not have key numbers. There are far more points scored in basketball than in football, causing a greater variety in margins of victory. If you compare the NFL with college football, there is a lot more parity in the NFL, making it easier to win teasers. You generally don’t see a ton of double-digit blowouts in a single NFL week, whereas they happen all the time in college football.

There is a school of thinking to avoid teasing through zero or teasing a favorite such that it becomes an “underdog” (getting points). After all, basketball games cannot finish in a tie (a zero-point margin), and NFL games almost never tie. The Miami Heat could win a game by three, by two, or by one, or lose by one, two, three, etc. So if you tease the Heat from -3 to +1, you are essentially teasing the spread only three possible point outcomes even though you are paying to move it four points.

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