Pleaser Bets

How to Place a Pleaser Bet

A pleaser bet is relatively straightforward in it’s application. You log into your account, select ‘pleaser’ and then pick two to six teams (or more if your book offers it), and then usually there is a dropdown box to select how many points to ‘please’. Some books only allow six-team pleasers, so they may simply post the lines with the six points taken off when you select ‘pleaser’.

This makes it a lot easier to see exactly how many points your teams need to win/lose by for your bet to cash. Other books make you do the math yourself, which seems strange in 2022.

Pleaser Payouts

Typical payouts for a six-point pleaser are:

• Two teams (+600)
• Three teams (+1700)
• Four teams (+4500)
• Five teams (+12000)
• Six teams (+30000)

Examples of Pleaser Bets

Let’s take a look at a few examples of pleaser bets and how they work.

Another example of a pleaser is this one involving three teams and six points:

One example of a pleaser that you cannot bet is one involving two teams from the same game.

This is one main difference between a pleaser and a teaser. In a regular teaser bet you certainly can bet both teams in the same game, also known as a ‘jake’.

Strategy for Pleaser Bets

One strategy that can be used to bet pleasers is to find teams with spreads in the pick ’em-3 range and bet them with other teams in a similar range. Upsets happen often in the NFL and a three-point underdog will win a decent portion of the time. If you can find two teams primed for the small upset, you can get paid +600, not a bad return with minimal risk.

The odds for a pleaser look very good, but in reality they are still in favor of the sportsbooks most times. (Where have we heard that before??)

Generally, if you find more than two teams worth pleasing, you’re better off simply betting them in a round robin parlay bet. The math works out so that it’s about the same expected payout, but with a pleaser you are taking a much higher risk and thus increasing your variance, which requires a higher than usual bankroll.

Betting pleasers profitably and professionally requires a lot of math and legwork but can be done. It is a bit beyond the scope of this article, but there are resources online to help aid your progress if you wish to devote a lot of time and money to this.

Final Thoughts on Pleasers

If you aren’t looking to go pro, and simply want to gamble it up, pleasers are a nice option if you see some lines that you think are pretty far off in the best sportsbook sites. You can usually find lots of NFL games that are ‘closer than the experts think’ and use that to your advantage.

It can be fun, although not very smart, to pick four or five teams, fire up a pleaser bet, and hope for the best. Who knows, you may be running well and get lucky that day.

Playing pleasers in this way is similar to playing a slot machine hoping for a big payout. It is possible, but the odds are against you, and in the long run you will most likely come out behind.