What is a Teaser Bet?
If you’re familiar with parlay betting, a teaser bet is similar, but with a twist where you can move (tease) the points to a more favorable position, making the bet less risky. Evidently, less risk means less reward than a traditional parlay, as you’re moving points in your favor, affecting the payout. Teasers are only available on football and basketball point spreads and totals.
Like a parlay, you can select between two and 15 outcomes that you believe will occur. All of your bets must win in order for you to collect your winnings, making the teaser helpful when you feel like one or more of your bets might need some extra points. Depending on the sport, you can tease your point spreads and totals a certain amount, usually between four and ten points.
If any leg of your wager loses, your entire bet will lose. If your bet results in a push, your payout will reduce by the odds on that losing bet.
If you’ve read our parlay betting guide, you will pick up on how teasers work fairly easily. We’re going to use NFL teams for our example as it’s the most common sport we’ve noticed bettors will tease.
Point Spread Teaser Bet
Point spreads are the most common betting option to move points on when placing a teaser bet. When you tease the favored team, you will be decreasing the number of points that the favorite has to win by (the negative number). When you tease the underdog team, you are increasing the number of points that the underdog team can lose by (positive number).
Let’s start with a two-game NFL point spread teaser.
Chicago Bears +8.5 vs Green Bay Packers -8.5 (-110)
Philadelphia Eagles +2.5 vs Dallas Cowboys -2.5 (-110)
If we like the Packers and Eagles in these two matchups, but don’t feel like the spreads are where we want them to be, we can make a teaser bet. We believe that the Packers will win, but not by nine points, and the Eagles might lose by more than a field goal against the Cowboys. So, you tease the game by eight points. Your odds will change to Packers -0.5 and Eagles at +10.5.
If the Packers win their game, and the Eagles manage to lose by less than ten points, your bet will cash. Now, you wouldn’t get the payout you’d receive on a parlay on the original odds. You took out some of the risk. If you look at the below tables, you will see that a payout from a two-leg, eight-point teaser is 2/3 odds, so you’d receive two-thirds of what you would have won on a regular parlay. i.e. $66.67 of a $100 wager.
Totals Teaser Bets
Totals teaser bets are a bit easier to understand, mainly because totals are one of the easier betting types out there. When you tease a total, you’re adjusting the number of points both teams will need to score collectively. Placing a teaser bet on the over will decrease the number of points both teams will need to score collectively for you to win your total wager. Placing a teaser bet on the under will raise the number of points both teams will need to collectively score for your under bet to cash.
If you have a two-game NFL teaser bet, let’s say the Chiefs/49ers with a 51-point total and the Browns/Bengals with a 42-point total. You know that the Chiefs and 49ers both have an excellent defense, so you decide that 51 might be high for those teams and want to tease the over by 7. That would make the Chiefs/49ers total 44. If you think that the Browns/Bengals will score dangerously close to the 42-point mark, and don’t want to risk hitting the over, you can tease the under by 7, which would punch the under up to 49 points.
Why use a Teaser? Take two games you want to parlay, for example, Saints -8.549ers +2.5Here, you like the Saints to win, but maybe not by a touchdown and a field goal. And you think the 49ers will not get blown out, but might not stay within a field goal. So you tease both games by eight points. This leaves you with the Saints at -0.5 and the 49ers at +10.5. All that has to happen now is that the Saints win the game and that the Niners don’t lose by more than ten points. Obviously, you are in a much better position to win your wager.
The tradeoff is in the payout. In the above example, a two-team, 8-point teaser, the payout (as you can see from the chart) is 2/3, meaning a $100 wager will pay $66.67, whereas a $100 parlay on the same games with no teasing would have paid $160. Only you can decide if the greatly improved chance of winning is worth reducing your payout by almost 60%. Below, we have teased two NBA games by six points each.
As you can see from the confirmation Bet Slip below, we now have the Celtics at +3, instead of -3, and the Suns at +4.5, instead of -1.5, and our $100 wager will pay out $66.67 if both teams can cover the new spreads.
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How to Place a Teaser Bet? Go to the sportsbook page at BetUS. If you only want to see the lines for one sport, such as football, click the football link in the menu on the right to see what options are available for wagering on football. The options will show up in a dropdown menu underneath the main football tab. If you want to bet on NFL, click on it and the available games will show up in the middle of the page in what is called the betting engine.
Choose which NFL events you would like to bet on by clicking on the odds displayed in the betting engine. After your choice loads, you will see it in the right-hand column under Bet Slip. To choose another sport to add to your ticket, go back to the Sports column on the left and click another sport. Choose again from the available events and add them to your Bet Slip. Only full game lines are allowed for exotic wagers, which include Teasers.
Note: BetUS allows you to place what is called a Rolling If-Bet on Teasers. This allows you to place a new bet with the funds from a previously placed bet, with a few conditions. Click the link to find out how if a Rolling If-Bet can work for you. All your chosen events will be listed in the Bet Slip with your wager options above. As you are choosing your events, you will see wager options for placing a Parlay, If Bet, Reverse, and Teaser in the Bet Slip.
Straight will be the default wager type until you choose something else. Whatever wager type the Bet Slip is set to will be grey, as below.
Click the teaser button and you will see all your selections listed in the Bet Slip. Clicking on the drop-down arrow will show you your available teaser options.
To add more selections or an event from another sport on the menu, just bring up the lines for that sport in the betting engine again and select another event. The Bet Slip will add that event and keep itself in Teaser mode. If you have already entered a Risk amount, the Payout amount will automatically readjust with the new event’s odds. To place your bet into the system, click the Place my bets button under the Bet Slip:
Here, your BetUS Bet Slip gives you one more chance to view your pending wager before it is placed. This includes the game information, lines, and Risk and Win amounts. To confirm your wager, simply click Confirm. After you do this, you will be unable to change your wager and BetUS will be unable to cancel it.
Once your wager is confirmed, the Bet Slip will again show you all your wager details and ask you to print a hard copy of your Slip. In case of emergency or other circumstance, no internet claims will be honored unless a printed copy of bets in question is supplied.
| Teams | Points | ||||||||
| 3 | 6 | 6½ | 7 | 7½ | 8 | 8½ | 9 | 9½ | |
| 2 | 11 to 10 | 5 to 6 | 10 to 13 | 5 to 7 | 2 to 3 | 5 to 8 | 5 to 9 | 1 to 2 | 2 to 5 |
| 3 | 2 to 1 | 9 to 5 | 8 to 5 | 3 to 2 | 7 to 5 | 1 to 1 | 10 to 11 | 5 to 6 | 5 to 7 |
| 4 | 4 to 1 | 3 to 1 | 5 to 2 | 2 to 1 | 3 to 2 | 14 to 10 | 5 to 4 | 11 to 10 | 1 to 1 |
| 5 | 7 to 1 | 9 to 2 | 4 to 1 | 7 to 2 | 3 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 3 to 2 | 7 to 5 | 13 to 10 |
| 6 | 12 to 1 | 7 to 1 | 6 to 1 | 5 to 1 | 4 to 1 | 3 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 9 to 5 | 8 to 5 |
| 7 | 18 to 1 | 8 to 1 | 7 to 1 | 6 to 1 | 5 to 1 | 4 to 1 | 3 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 9 to 5 |
| 8 | 25 to 1 | 14 to 1 | 12 to 1 | 10 to 1 | 8 to 1 | 6 to 1 | 4 to 1 | 3 to 1 | 5 to 2 |
| 9 | 40 to 1 | 18 to 1 | 14 to 1 | 12 to 1 | 10 to 1 | 8 to 1 | 6 to 1 | 5 to 1 | 7 to 2 |
| 10 | 65 to 1 | 22 to 1 | 18 to 1 | 15 to 1 | 12 to 1 | 10 to 1 | 8 to 1 | 6 to 1 | 9 to 2 |
| 11 | 100 to 1 | 30 to 1 | 22 to 1 | 18 to 1 | 16 to 1 | 12 to 1 | 10 to 1 | 8 to 1 | 7 to 1 |
| 12 | 150 to 1 | 40 to 1 | 30 to 1 | 22 to 1 | 20 to 1 | 18 to 1 | 14 to 1 | 12 to 1 | 10 to 1 |
| 13 | 250 to 1 | 65 to 1 | 40 to 1 | 35 to 1 | 30 to 1 | 25 to 1 | 20 to 1 | 16 to 1 | 14 to 1 |
| 14 | 400 to 1 | 80 to 1 | 65 to 1 | 50 to 1 | 40 to 1 | 35 to 1 | 30 to 1 | 25 to 1 | 18 to 1 |
| 15 | 600 to 1 | 125 to 1 | 80 to 1 | 65 to 1 | 50 to 1 | 40 to 1 | 35 to 1 | 30 to 1 | 25 to 1 |
If any leg of your wager loses, your entire bet will lose. If any leg results in a push, your payout will reduce by the odds to the next lowest number Teaser. A 2 Team Teaser with one PUSH and one WIN the Teaser WILL NOT REVERT to a straight bet, the Teaser will become a PUSH.
In REGULAR TEASERS in case of a PUSH or No Action on one of the picks, the Teaser will revert to the next lowest number of teams ( 5 Team Teaser with one Push will become a 4 Team Teaser, and so on). But if you have a 2 Team Teaser with one PUSH and one WIN the Teaser WILL NOT REVERT to a straight bet, the Teaser will become a PUSH.
| Teams | Points | ||||||
| 10 | 10½ | 11 | 11½ | 12 | 12½ | ||
| 3 | 10 to 13 | 2 to 3 | 10 to 17 | 1 to 2 | 4 to 9 | 2 to 5 | |
| Points | |||||||
| 13 | 13½ | 14 | 14½ | 15 | 15½ | 16 | |
| 4 | 2 to 3 | 4 to 7 | 1 to 2 | 2 to 5 | 2 to 7 | 1 to 4 | 1 to 5 |
The Special Teasers have different rules, they will never revert to the next lower number, and that a loss will deem the entire teaser a loss.
In SPECIAL TEASERS in case of a Push the Teaser WILL NOT REVERT to the lowest number of teams, the bet will be considered NO ACTION, the entire bet is a PUSH.
Any time there is a loss in a teaser, Regular or Special, the teaser will always be graded as a loss. This applies to both Regular and Special Teasers
