Teaser Betting Strategy: A Guide to NFL and NBA Teaser Bets

What is Teaser Betting

Teasers are bets with multiple selections, with betting lines that you can adjust. These types of bets are only offered for NFL and NBA games, due to the high scoring structure of the sports. You can put point spreads or total points bets into your teasers.

To understand a teaser, we must first define betting lines. In almost all NFL games there is a favorite and an underdog, and sportsbooks offer point spread bets, in which they create a line that balances the two teams out in the form of extra points for the weaker side and a deficit in points for the stronger side. The bigger the line, the larger the perceived difference between the two teams.

Now, with teaser bets you can adjust the given lines, at the expense of changing the odds, to suit your preferences. To form a teaser bet, you need to have multiple point spread bets on your bet slip, and then you can adjust all the spreads in your slip with a points boost.

Teaser bets require multiple selections, just like parlay bets. However, the odds you get with teaser bets are considerably shorter than parlay bets. Plus, with parlay betting you can include moneylines or point spreads, and with teasers you can only use point spreads.

So why would you use teasers if the odds are better with parlays? simple – you sacrifice longer odds to give your bet a significantly larger chance of winning. With boosts of +6 points and upwards, your teams have a massive boost to the win.

Teaser Betting in Action

Teasers are not complicated bets at all, but they are considered to be a bit more advanced because you are playing around with the betting lines. The size of your teaser and how many selections you have in your bet slip will determine the odds and risk your bet carries. Let’s look at some examples of teaser bets.

Low Risk Two Team Teaser Bet Example

To start with a lower risk teaser, let’s pick two favorites (with points deficits) and give them a boost that pushes their betting lines into positive numbers.

• NY Jets -4.5
• DEN Broncos -2

Teaser bets are all about finding a price that looks good. So If you like the look of the New York Jets beating the Chicago Bears and the Broncos beating the Panthers, then this example below means you are giving yourself a low-risk bet.

A teaser allows you to choose the odds with which you’re comfortable in a football game. So in the Jets and Broncos 6-point teaser, a further 6 points are added to each team. The original point spread of -4.5 changes to +1.5 for the Jets, and the -2 changes to +4 for the Broncos.

In the screenshot below, you can see how this works, where we have selected a six-point football teaser, and the line has changed for each team, meaning our odds are -120.

If you were to choose a 6.5-point teaser, the odds would be -130, and for a 7-point teaser, your odds would be -140.

The more points you add to your teaser, the shorter the odds become, which means the chances of your bet losing are reduced dramatically.

This example, of picking the favorites and giving them positive lines, has a great chance of winning, but the odds are quite short. So let’s take a look to see how you can put a teaser in reverse, and instead of bolstering your chances of winning, you increase the difficulty and get those sweet long odds.

High Risk Two Team Teaser Bet Example

• New York Jets -4.5
• Miami Dolphins -13.5

In this instance, we are switching and doing a reverse teaser. We are taking the New York Jets at -4.5 and choosing a -6 point spread; the -4.5 changes to -10.5.

We are adding the Miami Dolphins at -13.5 and choosing a -6 point spread; the -13.5 changes to -19.5.

Some sportsbooks like FanDuel offer -6 point, -6.5 point, and -7 point reverse teasers, giving you a chance for a huge difference in odds.

Now those odds look great, but don’t forget that you are basically betting on the Jets to win their game by a margin of 13+ points and for the Dolphins to beat the Texans by 20+ points. It is not impossible, but the odds are racked up high against you.

FanDuel Teaser Betting Rules

Sportsbooks have different sports betting rules for teaser bets, and one of the best sportsbooks for teasers is the FanDuel sportsbook. Let’s look at the FanDuel teaser betting rules and explain how they work.

The main thing to note when placing teaser bets at FanDuel is that if a tie happens in two leg teaser, then that means the bet will be a push, and your stake is refunded. The same situation applies if you have a three-leg teaser and two legs of the bet end in a tie. You will have your wagering stake on that bet refunded.

Teaser Odds and Payouts Explained

Teaser payouts depend on the number of games you include in your teaser bet. The more NFL games you add, the larger the odds will be. Of course, adding more games to a teaser means great risk but also greater reward if all your teams win with their adjusted points taken into account.

Odds on teasers are almost the same anywhere you bet and it does not really matter which teams you bet on. This is because all the base bets are point spreads, which are almost always -110, if not a little bit over or under. So generally, you can expect the odds on teasers to be similar, if not the same.

Larger teasers will shorten your odds, but you can compensate by adding more selections to your wager. That is basically how teasers work, in that you sell points on the line for more security, and can add as many selections to your bet to lengthen the odds.

Let’s also give you an example of a reverse wager using the same teams as above and see how that can lead to much bigger teaser odds and payouts.

Giving teams huge margins, such as -10 or larger, really puts the pressure on. In return though, you are hitting some truly gigantic odds. These are the typical kinds of longshot bets that daredevil bettors may place a few dollars on and play the odds. A win will not only bring you a tidy fortune, but you can print that bet slip and frame it with pride.

What is a Push in Teaser Betting?

A teaser bet push occurs when you have one leg of your teaser bet ending in a tie.

Many bettors are not clear on the rules surrounding teaser bets. So if you backed a team with +6 points and they lost the game by 6 points then that would be a draw and therefore a push.

The majority of sportsbooks will treat a teaser bet like a standard parlay. They will just delete the push leg from the bet and treat it as a teaser with one leg instead of two, two legs instead of three, and so on.

But you need to be careful and read all the terms and conditions of the bet. FanDuel, as an example, will cancel a two-team teaser if one leg is a push and the other wins. It means your stake gets returned.

Reverse Teasers Explained

Reverse teasers are where you can really enhance your odds by taking a strong stance against the sportsbook.

So instead of “buying” six points, you are “selling” six points. It’s similar to trading stocks in a way. Look at the screenshot below, which explains how a reverse teaser affects odds.

So in our two examples of bet teasers above, we have a “teaser” (+6) and a “reverse teaser” (-6), which is sometimes referred to as a “pleaser.”

For the teaser, we have added (bought) six points, and because we have wagered on three favorites, the odds are short, whereas in the reverse bet, we have deducted (sold) six points, meaning our three favorites have given their opponents an extra 6 point head start.

These bets are sometimes referred to as “pleasers” because the sports bettor will be delighted if he manages to pull one off at monster odds, while the sportsbook is pleased because they have more chance of the sportsbook scooping your money.

Reverse teasers are a more strategic bet, so looking for games with a narrower point spread, like our example above, can be a solid betting strategy.

Are Teaser Bets Worth It?

As with any bet, you must weigh a teaser’s pros and cons. Betting teasers is a bet for the more advanced handicapper, as they require more strategy.

They are definitely a bet worth using, as you control the odds. You use your knowledge of the various teams to decide who will win, and by adding or subtracting points, you also manage your risk level.

Two and three-team teasers are the most common and where you will likely have the best chance of hitting a winning bet.

Teaser Betting Strategies

As a sports bettor, you may have heard the term “Wong Teaser,” a betting strategy invented by the gambling author Stanford Wong (real name John Ferguson), the author of the book “Sharp Sports Betting,” which was released more than two decades ago.

Wong had looked at teasers in-depth and, using mathematical probability, found that backing favorites in football games at between -7.5 to -8.5 and adding underdogs at +1.5 to +2.5 would produce a winning bet up to 76% of the time.

Why was this?

It was because of how football scoring works, with the key numbers of touchdowns, extra points, and field goals being important. Most points scored in football are either 7 points or 3 points. A team scores 7 points by scoring a touchdown (six points) and kicking for an extra point through the posts after a touchdown, while a field goal (3 points) can be a drop kick or kick from the hands through the posts from open play. Let’s see how that affects your teaser betting strategy in the following table:

• Please note: these margins relate to spread bets, sportsbooks generally do not offer teasers of 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2. They usually start from 3 or 6 and can go up to 12 or higher. Also, some sportsbooks do not offer reverse teasers, and if they do, they may be limited to -6 up to -7.5

Wong found that using this scoring strategy, aligned with certain point spreads and a 6-point teaser, as we mentioned above. He managed to pull one up the sportsbooks using “Wong Teasers” on pro football but not on college football. He believed college football was unpredictable, so he did not tease college football games.

However, the online sportsbooks soon realized they were at a disadvantage and closed the loop by not using those points spreads and offering shorter odds to swing the risk towards the punter.

There are two ways to decide which are the best teaser betting sites USA.

First, we look at the odds. We all want to get the best odds for our football bets, and secondly, we took a look at the top five sportsbooks for placing teaser bets.

Below you can see the odds for a two-team football teaser using +6 points on the New York Jets (-6) versus the Chicago Bears and the Miami Dolphins (-13.5) playing the Houston Texans.

• FanDuel -134
• DraftKings -120
• Caesars -120
• BetRivers -104
• Unibet – 104

So as you can see above, BetRivers and Unibet have significantly better odds on these two-team teasers and NFL point spreads.

So we have looked at the odds, but what about placing your bets? How easy is it to place a teaser with these five sportsbooks?

Fanduel Teaser Bets

FanDuel has the best teaser betting slip interface of the five sportsbooks we checked out. The sportsbook allows you to place teasers (and reverse teasers) from -7, -6.5, -6, and from +3 through to +14.

They make it very easy to play a common teaser or reverse-style teaser all from the same screen by using the + and – sliders as outlined in green on the teaser cards above. The odds are also shown clearly.

To kickstart your teaser betting adventures, check out the bonus bets available at FanDuel.

DraftKings Teaser Bets

DraftKings allows you to place teasers from

This interface of DraftKings is less user-friendly than FanDuel, as you need to scroll to select your points. DraftKings does not offer reverse teasers. Its teaser betting options are +6, +6.5, +7 and +13.

Another negative is that Draftkings does not offer bettors the chance to place wagers on reverse teasers. Even so, make sure to check their bonus bets offer, which gives up to $1000 to play with.

Caesars Teasers Bets

The Caesars Sportsbook teaser interface is our second favorite and is very easy to use. All the information can be seen clearly inside the betting slip without the need to scroll.

We like that the odds are displayed clearly, and the points slider is straightforward and easy to use. The teasers range includes 6, 6.5, 7, 10 and 14 as both teaser point boosts and reverse teaser point subtractions.

Check out the bonus bets available at Caesars, as they have a $1250 welcome offer for new players.

Unibet Teaser Bets

The Unibet Sportsbook comes out second best when it comes to the odds offered on this particular two-team teaser bet. So, let’s look at the bet slip and see if that is easy to use. The options for teasers at Unibet are -10, -7, -6.5, -6, +6, +6.5, +7, and +10.

Once you have made your match selections, you will arrive at a betslip like the one above. We like that the odds are clearly displayed, as are the point spreads.

If you like the Unibet interface, use our links to start betting on their site.