NFL Teaser Bets How it Works – Sports Betting Basics and Tips

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So before we get into the strategy for making NFL Teaser bets, let’s break down what they are, exactly.

Teasers are a type of Parlay bet where the lines are moved in your favor.

In exchange for the sportsbook helping you by shifting the lines, the payout odds are going to be lessened.

You can make Teaser bets on either the points pre ad or on the Total, also known as the “Over/Under”.

For our examples in this video, we’re going to be focused mainly on Point Spread Teasers.

Since this is a type of Parlay wager, that means you’ll be betting on multiple games as part of a single wager.

If you need to brush up on Parlay betting,you can find a link to our How-To guide on that in the description below.

Let’s take a look at an example of a possible teaser.

Let’s say there are two NFL games you are interested in betting on.

The first has the Chicago Bears visiting the Los Angeles Rams, with the Rams favored by 8.5 points.

The second is the Minnesota Vikings visiting the Raiders, with the Raiders favored by 3.5 points.

For this example, you like the Rams at home and the Vikings on the road.

You could place a bet on each game on the spread, risking $110 on each individual game to try and win $100 each time.

You could combine them in a Parlay, where you’d get +265 odds.

Or, you could put them together in a teaser,where the odds would be -110.

This would be what is considered an “industry standard”, 2-team, 6-point teaser.

What that means is, in exchange for lowering the payout odds on your Parlay from +265 down to -110, you’ll get 6 points added in your favor on each of the point spreads.

So now instead of it being the Rams -8.5,it’s Rams -2.5.

For the Vikings, they’d move from +3.5 to+9.5.

The same rules apply for the point spreads,but now the spreads have been moved in your favor.

For 2-team teasers like the one we just discussed,you’ll typically find three different levels of odds available… -110 odds on a 6-point teaser, -120 odds on a 6.5-point teaser, and -130 odds on a 7-point teaser.

The more points the spread moves in your favor,the lower your potential payout.

Some bookmakers will even offer 7.5-point teasers at -140 odds.

Unlike with standard Parlays, adding additional teams to Teasers may not always just mean larger payouts.

Instead, you may end up being given more points for each team added.

For example, one site offers 3-team, 10-point teasers at -110, and 4-team, 13-point teasers at -120.

Let’s get into some basic strategy.

The most common margins of victory in NFL games are 3 points and 7 points.

Because of that, basic strategy is essentially based on the following premise: “The most profitable Teasers are those that fully cross 3 and 7 at the best odds possible”.

But what does that mean? Fully crossing means going from a loss to a win.

Spreads of 7 and 3 are considered pushes,whether they are pluses or minuses.

Teasing -7 to -1 or +3 to +9 wouldn’t be part of basic strategy, because both of these examples would be teased from a push to a win on one of the required numbers, and not a loss to a win.

There are two subsets to basic strategy.

The first is to tease all underdogs in the range of +1.5 to +2.

5 by six points, fully crossing both a 3-point margin and a 7-point margin up to a range of +7.5 to +8.5.

The second subset is to tease all favorites in the range of -7.5 to -8.

5 by six points, fully crossing both a 7-point margin and a 3-point margin down to a range of -1.5 to -2.5.

No other subset would meet the criteria that we’re looking for.

The final challenge to getting the best odds relates to weeks when there are more than two teams with point spreads meeting basic strategy subsets.

Here, we need to know how many teams give the best odds possible, and to do that, we have to get into teaser math.

Essentially, we have to figure out how to break down the odds given to us on our Teaser into the odds given to each team involved in the Teaser itself.

Without filling your screen with math problems and numbers, just know that a standard “2-team, 6-point” Teaser at -110 odds is a Parlay where each team is priced at -262 odds, and a “3-team, 6-point” Teaser at +180 odds is a Parlay where each team is priced at -244 odds.

So how do you use those numbers? Well, it means that you’re getting better odds by playing a “3-team, 6-point” Teaser when at least three teams meet the requirements we set out in the last segment.

Earlier in this video, we mentioned that Teasers can be placed on Point Spreads or on the Over/Under.

We don’t recommend using Teasers for the Over/Under, however, because, statistically, teasing the Totals doesn’t increase your chances of getting a payout enough to warrant the lesser payout odds.