Teaser bets are generally only available for betting on basketball and football. This is because these sports offer similar types of spreads that work with teasers. Sharp football or basketball bettors will more often than not include teasers in their betting strategy because it is often possible to gain an advantage against the sportsbook through the intelligent use of teasers.
Teaser Bet Explanation
After reading that first paragraph you may still have no clue what a teaser bet is. Let’s get to that.
A teaser bet involves a wager on 2 or more outcomes as 1 wager. This is similar to parlay bets, except for one major difference. With teaser bets the spread is altered, in your favor, by a certain number of points. The payout then depends on the number of points you are teasing and the number of games you are picking.
In football a typical teaser is for 6, 6.5, 7, or 7.5 points, but you can also find sweetheart teasers of up to 13 points. In basketball a typical teaser is 4.5, 5, 5.5 or 6 points, but you can also find teasers at BetOnline.ag of up to 9 points. Different online sportsbooks will have different teaser options and different odds associated to these teasers. BetOnline offers very competitive teaser odds and options, which is why I am going to use their teaser chart for the rest of this article.
To explain a little bit more, in a 6 point NFL teaser you would gain 6 points on the spread for each outcome you choose. For example a team that is an 8 point favorite (-8) will be given 6 points and the line will become -2 in the teaser.
Teaser Odds
As mentioned the odds associated with each teaser depends on the number of outcomes you choose and the number of points you tease. Here are a few examples from BetOnline.ag, but teaser odds vary quite a bit from book to book.
- 2 team 6 point NFL sides (or 4.5 point NBA sides) teaser (-110)
- 3 team 6 point NFL sides (or 4.5 point NBA sides) teaser (+160)
- 4 team 6 point NFL sides (or 4.5 point NBA sides) teaser (+260)
To really see the teaser odds I suggest checking out the chart at your personal sportsbook.
Teaser Example
Here is an example using the 2 team 6 point teaser with -110 odds outlined above. Here are the actual lines for a couple of teams that you will be taking:
Indianapolis Colts -8.5
Jacksonville Jaguars +2.5
With this teaser you are getting 6 points from each team. This would bring the spreads to the following: Indianapolis Colts -2.5 and the Jacksonville Jaguars +8.5. So basically if the Colts win the game by a field goal or more and the Jaguars lose by less than 8.5 points your teaser bet will payout.
Teaser Pushes
It is possible for one or more selections in your teaser to push. If this happens the outcome that pushes is removed from the teaser and the potential payout is reduced to the teaser payout with the number of teams minus the pushed teaser. For example, if you had a 4 team 6 point NFL teaser that had odds of +260 and a team pushed then you would be left with a 3 team 6 point teaser with odds of +160.
With 2-team teasers the majority of books simply ‘no-action’ the entire teaser if one of the two legs is a push.
Many online bookies will also offer ‘ties win’ teasers so you don’t have to worry about pushes. These ‘ties win’ teasers can be advantageous when picking teams without half point spreads because pushes are a possibility.