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What's a teaser bet? A teaser is a parlay, meaning that two or more bets are combined into one ticket.
Teasers are a unique way to change the spread of multiple games and are most common in high-scoring sports like the NFL.
We'll run through teaser examples in both sports, starting with the NFL.
Teaser betting basics
Let's use the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams as our first example.
For our sake, we're going to say the Chiefs are 9.5-point home favourites over the Las Vegas Raiders, while the Rams are 4.5-point home underdogs versus the San Francisco 49ers.
If you like Kansas City and Los Angeles but aren’t 100% confident they will cover the spread, you can tease the spreads to more palatable numbers.
In this scenario, we will tease both games by 7 points, standard to the NFL, as it represents a touchdown and extra point.
By doing that, we bring the Chiefs spread down to -2.5, meaning they only have to win by a field goal instead of 10. Los Angeles, meanwhile, would become a +11.5 underdog, meaning they can lose by 11 points or fewer, instead of just four.
When teasing a game, you are paying more juice (the cut you give the sportsbook for taking your bet), but are gaining points. That's the key trade-off.
Teaser bet odds
Normal point spread odds in the NFL (and the NBA) are -110 for both the favourite and underdog. So at the normal spread in the Chiefs and Rams examples, it means Chiefs -9.5 and Rams +4.5 would both have odds of -110.
Those odds mean that you would have to wager $110 to win $100.
If you bet on these games as a parlay, though, the odds would be +264. That would return a profit of $264 on a $100 wager. Why the bigger payout? Because betting on more than one outcome on a single ticket comes with more risk. You would have to get both bets right in order to win.
Now, when teasing these games, the odds would change.
Let's say the Chiefs at -2.5 had odds of -260 while the Rams at +11.5 was -240. Bet together, the odds would be -104 and you would profit $96.15 on a $100 wager.
It’s worth noting that the odds won’t always be exactly the same for every teaser card.
Teasing totals
Teasing totals is very similar to teasing points.
If an over/under is set at 47.5 at -110 odds in the NFL, you can tease it seven points either way. Over 40.5, or under 54.5 both provide more of a cushion, but it changes the odds.
How to bet a reverse teaser
So we’ve established teasers are selling odds to buy points in order to be safer, but what if you want to do the opposite?
This isn't typically given as an option, but you can manually change the spreads in what is known as a reverse teaser. That means you are teasing the line in the opposite direction to get a massive uptick in payout potential.
This is more unlikely to cash and you're essentially selling points to get plus odds.
Let’s say the Buffalo Bills are 10.5-point favourites at home vs. the Carolina Panthers and you believe a total blowout is going to happen. Then you can reverse-tease them to -17.5, meaning they now have to win by 18 or more.
Further, if the Green Bay Packers are 4.5-point underdogs against the Dallas Cowboys and you think they’ll win, you can reverse tease the line to Packers -3.5.
Combining these two reverse teasers is risky, as you are going a touchdown away from what the operator believes will occur. But the odds would be tantalizing and look like this:
Packers -3.5 (+200)
Bills -17.5 (+220)
That would generate odds of +860.
