When you bet the point spread or over/under total in football and basketball there’s a really exciting bet you can make called a teaser.
Teaser bets let yo combine wagers on two or more games and shift the point spread or over/under line in your favor.
The catch is that you have to win all the games for your teaser bet to win, kind of like betting parlays. The second thing to remember is that since you’re shifting the spread in your favor, the sportsbook charges a premium in the form of a slightly worse payout on your bet.
The more you move the spread, the bigger the premium.
In this guide will explain all the different types of teaser bets in detail and will also break down how the odds work when you tease a bet, the pros and cons of teasers and some clear examples of teasers in the NFL and NBA. Finally, we’ll give you a crash course in the best teaser betting tips and strategies.
What are Teaser Bets?
Making a teaser bet requires combining two or more games into one ticket and choosing how many points you want to move the point spread or over/under (total) lines in favor of the teams you’re betting on to win.
The main benefit of teasers bets is that a better point spread makes it easier to win your bets. The downside is that you have to win all your games to win the teaser bet, and you have to pay an extra premium depending on how many points you tease (move) the line by.
Teaser bets in football let add or subtract 6, 6.5, or 7 points from the point spread or the over/under totals line.
With the point spread tease, the line can shift in one of two ways:
- Subtracted from the favourite – the favorite has to win by up to seven points less than the original spread. For example, if a team is a -8 favorite and you have them in a 7-point teaser, they now only need to win by more than 1 to cover the spread on your teaser bet.
- Added to the underdog – the underdog can lose by even more than the original spread. For example, if the original spread has the underdog at +4.5, having them in a 7-point teaser means the new spread is +11.5 and they can now lose by up to eleven points.
- Totals – You can also tease a score by moving the over/under line up or down
The tradeoff for better spreads and totals is that the payout is reduced on a winning ticket. That is because you are increasing the likelihood of a win and therefore lowering the payout odds.
Also important to remember and distinguish; there are two types of teaser bets:
- Vegas teaser or two-team teaser: This “normal” version of a teaser bet is for only two games and lines are generally moved by 6, 6.5, or 7 points up or down, and ties on any part of the bet usual refunds the whole ticket.
- Larger teaser bets with more than two games are often called a super teaser, special teaser, big teaser or monster teaser and they combine three, four or five games into one ticket.
Nowadays teasers for football and basketball come in many shapes, names and sizes. Sometimes teasers will even allow the punter to combine NBA games with NFL games in the same teaser.
There are so many varieties of teasers that you need to make sure you read through each sportsbook’s terms and conditions to see their specific rules. For now, as long as you understand the basic concept of how a teaser works you’ll be able to make sense of any variation you see on a site.
Can You Push a Teaser Bet?
It’s really important to understand each sportsbook’s rules for pushes within a teaser. A push is a special sports betting term for a tie bet.
In most cases, a two-team teaser where one bet wins and one bet pushes will be refunded while a loss/push results in a full loss. Exceptions will be stated and you might see “ties win” teasers offered where if one game is a push and the other is a win, the ticket wins.
- With teasers of more than two games, a push with the rest of the legs winning will act as a parlay bet does and eliminate the push bet frim the wager and take the smaller parlay as its own bet.
- In some rare cases, a book will have different rule and a tie/push on any of your combined games will refund your whole ticket.