Betting NFL Teasers

Sharp Sports Betting is a tool for those interested in winning money at sports betting. The book explains the most common sports bets, what all the numbers mean, and the mathematics behind the numbers.

A teaser is a parlay in which each team is given extra points against the spread. In bets involving NFL sides, six-point teasers are common but you also can buy teasers for 6.5 points and seven points.

Here is an example of how teasing works. Suppose the line is Cowboys +2. If you bet that team as part of a six-point teaser, you would be betting on Cowboys +8. Cowboys +8 is more likely to cover than Cowboys +2, but the payoffs for teasers are lower than the payoffs for bets that do not involve receiving extra points.

I have never seen one-team teasers being offered, though any sportsbook could offer a one-team teaser if it wished. The only teasers of which I am aware require the bettor to tease at least two teams. Some sportsbooks require you to tease at least three teams in the NFL.

Payoffs on teasers vary from sportsbook to sportsbook. If you want to bet teasers, shop around to see who offers the best prices.

Teasers are available on more than just NFL games. Six-point to seven-point teasers are also available on college football games, sometimes for different payoffs than are used for NFL games. Teasers of four to five points are available on basketball games.

Frequency of Covers With More Points

To evaluate teasers, it’s helpful to know the frequency of actual game results coming close to the predicted results.

The first few points you get are the most valuable. Each additional point tends to add less value. For example, the value to you of the fifteenth point is considerably less than the value of the first point.

For seven points or less, each extra half point increases your chance of winning by approximately 1.5 percent.

Had you been given a half-point bonus on every team but been required to bet both teams of every game, you would have almost broken even. (Breaking even requires winning 52.4 percent of non-ties. You would have won 51.3 percent, lost 46.9 percent, and tied 1.4 percent, which is 52.2 percent winners after removing ties.)

Another way of looking at that result: If you are a good enough handicapper to identify spreads that, on average, are off by more than a half point, you are good enough to have an edge while risking $110 to try to win $100.

Caution: Not all spreads are equally likely. In the NFL, by far the most common margin of victory is 3 points.

Teasing into a Tie

Suppose you tease a +2 team up to +8. Suppose the final score is your team loses the game 21-13. After adding in your eight points, the game is a tie. What happens to your teaser? If your teaser was for more than two teams, the pushing team is ignored and the teaser is treated as if it were made without that team’s being a part of it. Thus a push would convert a three-team teaser into a two-team teaser.

Two-team teasers in which one team is teased into a push become no action; your money is returned to you. So if you have teased two teams and your first team loses, you still have a chance to get something back for your ticket: Root for the teased points to give your second team a push. If your first team loses and your second team ties, you get your money back. If your first team loses and your second team covers, you lose. That sounds irrational, but that’s the way it is. (Read the fine print before betting a two-team teaser; some Internet sportsbooks treat a tie and a loser as a loser.)

There will be more to come on NFL teasers.

This is part of an occasional series of articles.

Excerpted with permission from Sharp Sports Betting by Stanford Wong, edited for this format.