A teaser is a sports bet that is similar to placing a parlay bet. Both types of wagers are made by selecting two or more events to occur. Like a traditional parlay, each event selected for a teaser must win in order for the player to win to win the bet.
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All multi-event wagers have the potential for larger wins but teasers don’t pay as much as a parlay. The attraction to teasers might be that they appear easier to win.
The main item that separates a teaser from a traditional parlay is that a bettor may alter point spreads and over/under totals between 4 and 10 points depending on the sport and teaser. Changing the point spread and point total make the wagers appear to be easier to win.
Winning multiple bets, no matter the point spread is never easy. However, the adjusted lines should help bettors find a little more confidence in their bets. The payout from the sportsbook for a teaser is lower than a parlay since these are anecdotally easier to win.
How a teaser works
A teaser isn’t too difficult to understand after seeing how the point moving works. The easiest way to comprehend a teaser is to see an example. For simplicity, we’ll use a six-point teaser for football games:
Original wager options:
- New England Patriots +3 (-110) at Kansas City Chiefs
- Los Angeles Rams +3 (even) at New Orleans Saints
A two-team six-point teaser on the underdogs would change the point spreads to the following:
- New England Patriots +9 at Kansas City Chiefs
- Los Angeles Rams +9 at New Orleans Saints
A two-team six-point teaser on the favorites would change the point spreads to the following:
- New England Patriots at Kansas City Chiefs +3
- Los Angeles Rams at New Orleans Saints +3
A $10 parlay with the original point spreads would pay approximately $27.70. A $10 six-point teaser would pay $8.35. The same teaser will pay less if the point spreads or totals are teased by 6.5 or 7 points.
The process for selecting totals on a teaser is similar.
All sportsbooks offer a variety of teaser cards for football season. Football games can be teased by 6, 6.5, or 7 points. Some casinos offer 10 point teasers but only for a total of three sides and/or totals.
Sportsbooks offer teasers for basketball as well. However, they offer fewer basketball teaser cards than football. Basketball games can be teased by 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, or 6 points.
Placing a teaser in person
A teaser in a land-based casino can be done in two ways. A player simply can tell the ticket writer how much they’d like to wager, how many points they’d like to tease and the point spread and totals that they would like to tease. It’s rare to see a person bet a teaser in person like this.
The in-person process can be confusing and time-consuming. Most teaser bets in land-based casinos are placed using a teaser card. Filling out a card in advance of visiting the sportsbook desk is a quick way to complete the transaction since all of the information is already filled in.
Casinos offer a variety of parlay and teaser cards. Make sure to read the rules and payout before choosing a card.
Betting teaser cards
Casino operators have different computer systems for parlays and teasers so the process might be different at certain casinos. Most teaser cards have fixed point spreads and Over/Under totals. In this case, the information on the card won’t change when a teaser bet is placed.
Some sportsbook operators might use a “live line” even though a teaser card lists a specific line from the morning. This allows the casino to change the point spread or point total based on what the current line is when the teaser is placed.
The ticket writer will ask the player if they’re okay with the changes before finalizing the bet. This process can be intimidating for new bettors when a sportsbook is busy and the lines are long. Bettors don’t have to accept the new lines and shouldn’t be afraid to decline the line changes.
Placing a teaser at an online sportsbook
Placing a teaser at an online sportsbook might be the easiest way to make this kind of wager. A teaser can be made simply by selecting the teams and totals, selecting “teaser,” and choose how many points to tease.
Online teaser cards make the process even more simple. The teaser card will show the adjusted point spreads and totals for each card. The player simply chooses between two and eight sides or totals then selects how much they’d like to wager. Just enter “submit” and confirm the bet. That’s all it takes to bet a teaser online.
Teaser Payouts
Once a bet is placed, the odds paid remain fixed no matter what computer system a sportsbook uses. Teaser payouts are smaller than traditional parlays.
For example, a two-team point spread parlay might pay 2 to 1 odds if both events are winners for the player. Meanwhile, a two-team teaser might pay -110 if both events are winners.
The more points used to tease lines, the less the payout will be. A six-point teaser might return 10-11, while a 6.5-point teaser only returns 10-12, and a seven-point teaser returns 10-13.
Actual pay schedules vary by teaser type and sportsbook. Check the pay schedule before placing a teaser or any other bet.
The risk/reward ratio of parlays has long made them an enticing proposition for bettors. Naturally, adding more “legs” to a parlay wager boosts both the difficulty and potential payout. Needless to say, the more outcomes in play, the less tolerable these bets are for the faint of heart.
The flip side — the part that makes parlays the darling of many bettors — is how sweet it is when these long-shot wagers do hit.
A New Jersey bettor at FanDuel Sportsbook at New Meadowlands Racetrack experienced that side of the equation Friday night. His MLB/NBA six-team parlay came through, turning his $4,999 wager into a $525,867.50 payout:
Team | Wager | Outcome |
New York Mets | RL -1.5 (+130) | Beat Marlins 11-2 |
New York Yankees | ML +148 | Beat Rays 4-3 |
Golden State Warriors | ML +240 | Beat Rockets 118-113 |
Pittsburgh Pirates | ML +138 | Beat Cardinals 2-1 |
Los Angeles Angels | ML -180 | Beat Orioles 8-3 |
Boston Red Sox | ML -215 | Beat Mariners 14-1 |
No shortage of sweat during six-game gauntlet
One way to at least slightly bump up the odds of parlay success — theoretically — involves going heavy on moneyline (ML) bets. Statistically, there’s typically a higher degree of success in predicting an outright winner than a margin of victory.
However, baseball can certainly be a difficult sport to prognosticate night to night, especially in the early going this season, it seems. So, a six-teamer that relies on correctly pegging four MLB winners still carries a hefty amount of uncertainty.
Predictably, Friday’s winner had to survive a handful of close calls, which all came about an hour apart. The final one of the night involved the sole NBA leg of the wager, one where the better took advantage of a somewhat surprising moneyline:
Yankees-Rays (End time: 10:15 pm Eastern)
One of two MLB underdog calls that went right. Rays starter Tyler Glasnow — the primary reason for the Rays’ status as favorites — had given up two runs to the Yankees through five innings. However, Tampa had just overcome that deficit with a three-run surge just before the right-hander took the hill to start the sixth. Glasnow began to succumb to forearm tightness at that point. He was subsequently pulled after allowing two of the first three hitters of the inning to reach.
Reliever Emilio Pagan would go on to allow New York to regain the lead by yielding two runs after entering the game. Then, the bettor would have to sweat out four more chances for the Rays before the Yanks’ 4-3 lead held up for a win. That included a no-out, bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the seventh that reliever Adam Ottavino wiggled his way out of by retiring the dangerous duo of Tommy Pham (strikeout) and Ji-Man Choi (inning-ending double play).
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Pirates-Cardinals (End time: 11:09 pm Eastern)
Meanwhile, over in St. Louis, the Pirates and Cardinals were locked in a somewhat unlikely pitcher’s duel. The better had taken an underdog Pittsburgh squad to win outright with the Cards sending the inconsistent and aging Adam Wainwright to the mound. The wily veteran was seemingly operating in a time warp, however, as he’d held the Pirates scoreless through seven innings after allowing a leadoff homer to Adam Frazier.
Meanwhile, although Pittsburgh’s Trevor Williams was just as sharp, St. Louis had finally broken through in the home half of the seventh with a Paul DeJong infield single that knotted the game at 1-1. The sweat wouldn’t last too long, however. Starling Marte put the Pirates right back on top in the visitors’ half of the eighth with an RBI single. Reliever Kyle Krick made it interesting in the home half of the frame by putting two on before whiffing Dexter Fowler and inducing an inning-ending double play from Kolten Wong.
Warriors-Rockets (Approx. end time: 11:55 pm Eastern)
This one may arguably have been the most gut-wrenching of the three while it unfolded. Despite checking in as sizable moneyline favorites, the desperate Rockets hadn’t been able to separate from a short-handed Warriors squad dealing with the absence of Kevin Durant. Then, after snapping a 95-95 tie with 6:43 remaining on a James Harden 10-footer, the Rockets failed to score during the following 3:56. The Warriors built a five-point lead during that span.
Eventually, Chris Paul’s driving layup got Houston to within 104-102 with 1:45 remaining. That’s when the Splash Bros. came through for the lucky New Jersey bettor. Stephen Curry (11 points) and Klay Thompson (three points) would go on to score Golden State’s final 14 points to vault the Dubs into the conference finals and the bettor into a six-figure payday.
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Lead image courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook Meadowlands