As you start your sports betting adventures, you’ll learn myriad bet types go beyond a sportsbook’s standard offerings. Many fans enjoy betting parlays, which bundle multiple bets and require them all to be correct. Some bettors may take it a step further by making that parlay a teaser or even a pleaser.
With teasers and pleasers, multiple outcomes must hit for the bettor to receive any sort of payout, just like a parlay, but bettors can decide to move the lines in their favor or in the opposite direction.
The potential return is significantly different with these types of wagers, but teasers have become an incredibly popular way to bet on sports, especially the NFL when so many games end on specific point deficits.
What is a teaser bet?
A teaser is a variation on the parlay, and parlays are all-or-nothing style wagers. Bettors place money on multiple outcomes and win the bet only if they all come true.
If you put money on a four-way parlay and got three of the four right, the bet is still a loss. But the appeal of a parlay is the significant return you would receive if all four legs hit.
The biggest issue with risking money on a parlay bet is how difficult they are to win. Picking more than 50% of games correctly is incredibly hard, so relying on two outcomes to cash is that much harder. This is why many bettors will stay away from NFL football parlays entirely.
With a teaser, it gets significantly easier to pick a winner, though the payout will be lower because of that. In a teaser bet, you are still betting on multiple outcomes to happen, but you can move the sports betting line in your preferred direction.
NFL teaser example
Let’s say you want to bet on the Dallas Cowboys as four-point underdogs against the Philadelphia Eagles. Then, part two of your bet is on Houston Texans odds as eight-point favorites against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
- Dallas Cowboys +4 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
- Texans -8 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
In a football game, teasers generally move the lines by 6, 6.5 or 7 points. Let’s go with a six-point teaser on both, which shifts both point spreads six points in your preferred direction. Here is what the bet looks like after the teaser is implemented.
- Cowboys +10 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
- Texans -2 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
Instead of needing the Cowboys to lose by fewer than four points, you just need them to keep the score within 10 points. Furthermore, instead of you relying on the Texans to win by more than eight, now they simply have to win by more than two.
You still need both outcomes to be correct, but both bets became significantly easier to win. Of course, this means your payout also shrinks once the new lines are implemented.
Should I bet a teaser?
Whether you should bet on anything is always up to you and what you’re trying to accomplish in sports betting. Many bettors stay away from any wager that requires multiple outcomes. But some do well in the teaser markets and return a profit.
If you decide teasers might be the way to go for you, make sure you know how to identify where their value lies. This is especially important in football where specific spreads are so important. Because of how the scoring works with seven points on touchdowns and three for field goals, many games end on three- or seven-point deficits.
For that reason, getting a team favored by 6.5 points is a whole lot better than getting that team at seven points. On the other side, taking a 3.5-point underdog is far more valuable than if the number was at three. Always monitor those key numbers when betting an NFL teaser.
How do sportsbooks decide what to tease?
The two main betting types for teasers include the point spread and point total, also known as the over/under, and that’s about it. Teasers are most often used in sports that feature a lot of points, so you can find them available for football and basketball games.
However, teasers have really come to prominence for those betting on the NFL. It is an incredibly popular sport and league, and the key numbers for point totals and point spreads make for potentially valuable teasers.
What’s the catch?
The usual reason for betting NFL teasers is that they are far easier to win than traditional parlays. Winning parlays consistently is just not that realistic. While teasers can still be tough, they give bettors a significantly better chance.
However, there is often a catch when it sounds like the sports bettor has the edge over the sportsbook. Here, that catch is the low payouts for teasers. While a traditional parlay wager involving two outcomes could lead to a high payout, the odds of correctly betting both sides in a teaser are similar to betting the point spread or total on one single game.
You’ve made the parlay that much easier, but there’s no long-shot windfall waiting for you.
Another real-world NFL teaser bet example
Let’s take a look at another example, just slightly busier than the last one. If you took a look at the betting board on an NFL Sunday and decided to place some cash on a three-team teaser, it could look like this:
Three-team teaser (NFL)
- Dallas Cowboys vs. Green Bay Packers: Cowboys -3.5 @ -110
- Houston Texans vs. New England Patriots: Texans +2.5 @ -110
- Denver Broncos vs. Kansas City Chiefs: Chiefs +4 @ -115
Below, we look at the payouts if you decided to bet $100 on this trio in a traditional parlay vs. three different teaser margins (with lines moving 6, 6.5 and 7 points).
Odds breakdown
- Straight parlay: +581
- Profit potential: $581.38
- Teaser +6: +160
- Profit potential: $160
- Teaser +6.5: +150
- Profit potential: $150
- Teaser +7: +130
- Profit potential: $130
What is a pleaser bet?
Now, a pleaser bet is just like a teaser except the numbers are flipped to go against the bettor. This makes it extremely hard to win, but the payout is massive. For an example of what an NFL pleaser would entail, let’s go to the aforementioned two-team scenario concerning the Cowboys and Texans.
Here were the original NFL point spreads. Remember you’re backing the two Texas teams.
- Dallas Cowboys +4 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
- Texans -8 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
After putting in a six-point pleaser, here’s what the new bet looks like.
- Dallas Cowboys -2 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
- Texans -14 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
Instead of needing to lose by less than four, now the Cowboys need to win by more than two points. In the other leg, the Texans need to win by more than 14 points instead of eight.
Should you ever bet a pleaser?
Again, all wager styles are up to your preference. But you should understand immediately that pleasers cashing consistently is highly unlikely. Betting on single-game wagers at a high rate is hard; parlays are even harder; pleasers are as difficult as it gets to pick consistent winners. For this reason, many bettors will stay away from pleasers.
If you want to bet pleasers, our advice is the same as for teasers. In the NFL, base all of your pleaser bets on key numbers. Moving the point spread across numbers like three, seven and 10 in your favor is extremely important. Remember, getting a team as a 2.5-point favorite is far more valuable than a three-point favorite.
Specials
Sportsbooks are incredibly competitive. They’re looking to rack up as many users as possible, as the sports betting boom continues across the United States. That is great news for bettors because sportsbooks are getting more and more creative when it comes to betting markets.
A few examples might be total passing yards and passing touchdowns combined in a game between two top quarterbacks, or what division will win the Super Bowl. Be sure to check your preferred sportsbook or sportsbooks regularly to sample more adventurous betting markets. Once sports betting is legal in Texas, this should include such books as Caesars TX sportsbook, BetMGM Texas, as well as DraftKings Sportsbook TX, and FanDuel TX online sportsbook.
Odds boosts
The odds boosts tab is another exciting part of the forthcoming Texas online sports betting experience. Another one of the perks of so much competition between the books is odds boosts wherein a sportsbook will increase the payout of a particular wager. Be sure to take advantage of sports betting odds boosts.