Guide To Teasers

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A teaser is a bet involving two or more outcomes in a single wager wherein you adjust the point spread in your favor in return for reduced odds. Only football and basketball, the sports with point spreads, may be teased. When teasing, the spread will decrease for the favorite and increase for the underdog. Any loss in a teaser will result in the entire wager being graded as a loss.

For example: You can see how this makes sense by thinking of this NFL game between the Steelers and the Dolphins that was mentioned when discussing Straight Betting. In that game, the Steelers, who were favored with a -5 line, pulled out a late 24-21 victory. That 3-point win wasn’t enough to cover the point spread. Let’s also take the Pistons/Heat NBA game we discussed in the Buying Points section where the Pistons won a barnstormer with a 121-118 score. The spread in this game was -4 in favor of Detroit. Obviously, when you deduct those 4 points from the final score, the Heat ends up with the win.

If you were taking both of these games as single wagers and wanted to change the spreads in your favor, you would simply buy a few points as shown in the Buying Points section, and you could win that way. But say you really felt good about both games and wanted to take both in the same wager, like in a parlay.

This is where teasers come in.

At BetUS, we allow you to buy a set number of points on a set number of games in both football and basketball. As the number of points you tease moves the spread increasingly in your favor, your chances of winning your wager also increases. Conversely, as the number of points you tease moves the spread increasingly in your favor, the payout on winning wagers decreases. This is the same sort of idea we discussed in buying points. The thing to keep in mind, always, when betting is this: The goal is to win. Don’t get caught up too much in whether or not you have to wager more to win less. Get caught up in winning. Period.

We will get back to our 2 games shortly, but first, here is the chart that shows you what points can be bought on how many games in both football and basketball. When you cross sports in teasers, keep in mind that each sport must be in the same category of teasing. You’ll see what we mean on the chart below. There are 3 steps of teasing and the number of points teased increases as you go. In football, the steps are 6, 6.5 and 7 points. In basketball, the steps are 4, 4.5 and 5 points, respectively. If you tease an NFL game by 6.5 points and you have an NBA game in the same teaser that NBA game would have to be teased by 4.5 points, not 4 or 5. The same rule applies to every game in your teaser. If all the games are the same sport, all must be teased by the same amount. Teasers must be at least 2 teams, with up to 7 teams. All teams must win for you to win.

*** Odds shown in red are for possible cross-sport teasers.

Note: In the case of 'No Action' or a tie on any game in a 3-team teaser or more, the teaser automatically reverts down to the next lower number of teams. Any 2-team teaser with a winner and a tie, or 'No Action' is considered a tie. Any loss in a teaser is a loss.

For example: Now back to those games we brought up earlier. You take the Steelers at -5 points and the Pistons at -4 points and now you want to tease those spreads because you have a gut feeling the 2 teams will win, just not by enough to cover the spread the odds makers have given them. As so often happens, the 2 games are on at the same time of day and you have $50 you want to wager. You want to get as much value from your $50 as you can so, instead of buying the necessary points you’d need to feel comfortable with the games and putting $25 on each, you see that you can put the $50 on both games in a teaser and maximize not only your chances for success, but also the value of your $50.

You feel strongly enough about the games that you take the 2 games with the first tease level of 6 points for football and 4 points for basketball.

You can see by the Teaser Chart above that a 2-Team Teaser teased at the first level pays 10/11. Another way to write this fraction is -110, which we know as standard odds where you have to wager $110 to win 100. At these odds, your payout on $50 would be $45.45.

For example: If you had instead chosen to buy points and split your $50 into two $25 wagers, let’s see what you would have won. First, you would have had to buy 3 points to bring the spread from 5 to 2 in order to win as the Steelers won by 3 points. This would have cost you -170 for the points and then another 25% for buying through the 3-point key number, leaving you laying $25 at -195 for a payout of $12.82 on your win.

Secondly, you would have had to buy at least 1.5 points on the basketball game for a win as the spread started at -4 and the Pistons won by 3. So for a price of -140 on your $25 you would have just enough points to pull out a half-point victory and your payout would be $17.85. Together then, on your $50, you would have pocketed 12.82 + 17.85 = $30.67. Not bad at all. But by putting the 2 games together and teasing the spread, you made yourself an extra $14.78. That is an extra 48.2% return on your risk investment. You can take that to the bank!

RULES:

1) Teasers must have between 2 and 15 teams.

2) Any loss in a teaser will grade the entire wager as a loss. There are no partial payouts.

3) A push in a regular teaser of 3 teams or more will reduce the number of plays in the teaser. For example, a 5-team teaser that has two pushes will become a 3-team teaser and the payout will be recalculated based on the new number of plays.

4) A push or tie in any 2-team regular teaser will result in a push for the whole teaser, unless the other game is graded a loss. If any portion of a 2-team teaser is graded No Action, the entire teaser will be graded No Action, unless the other team is graded a loss.

5) Any event which does not take place on the date specified in the wager will be graded as No Action and the wager will reduce accordingly as explained above.

Special Teasers

With special teasers, you can tease the games you like even more, although you are limited to having either 3 or 4 teams only. Special teasers work the same way as regular teasers but for one important difference. Assuming there is no loss in the teaser, any push within the teaser will make the entire wager a push. As with regular teasers, any loss grades the whole wager as a loss.

Here is a chart showing the number of both teams and points that can be used in football special teasers and the payouts they offer:

Here is a chart showing the number of both teams and points that can be used in basketball special teasers and the payouts they offer: