Sweetheart Teasers

What Is a Regular Teaser?

Before explaining how sweetheart teasers work, let’s quickly go over what a regular teaser is.

The teaser bet lets you add extra points to your spread. So if you like a team -10 and another team also -10, you can bet both teams at -3 instead, but now both bets must win or your bet loses. The juice ranges wildly from book to book and depends on how many teams are involved.

Line shopping is very important in teasers, and always remember to read over the rules to make sure pushes reduce or push the entire bet. Otherwise, the bet is probably offering poor value.

How Sweetheart Teasers Work

Now that we’ve gone over a regular teaser, we move on to the slightly more complicated sweetheart teaser. Here are three different sites (names removed) and their different prices, as well as rules regarding ties:

• Book 1: 10-point, three-team teasers at -110 (ties lose)
• Book 2: 10-point, three-team teasers at -120 (ties reduce)
• Book 3: 10-point, three-team teasers at -120 (ties lose)

As you can see, it’s important to find a site with favorable rules to make your money last longer.

In this example, we can rule out Book 3 because Book 1 offers the same rules regarding ties but lower juice. So then it’s down to Book 1 and Book 2. In short, games don’t tie often enough to offset this higher juice, and you should avoid it.

A big difference between regular teasers and sweetheart teasers is that there generally are not any two-team sweetheart teasers offered. That one extra leg adds the very real chance that your bet will lose.

When to Tease Up or Down

Many players like to tease football games down to ‘capture’ key numbers such as 7, 10, and 14. This means that a team favored by 15 points can be bought down to -2.5 with the right bet. In effect, a team that is picked to win by more than two touchdowns now just has to win by a measly field goal and that leg is complete.

Other players enjoy teasing the lines ‘up’ to add a few touchdowns and give a slight underdog a better chance to cover. A lot of times using high spreads and adding to them does not appeal to most bettors, simply because most players do not properly assign the probabilities needed to make the bet.

This basically means that most people give 14+-point underdogs ‘no chance’ and don’t see the benefit in adding more points to that side. They prefer the ‘easy money’ of teasing down the favorite. Not to say either side is better than the other, as they are usually properly priced. But just remember to consider all sides when placing your bet.

Most books offer these sweetheart teasers on the NFL, NCAA football and basketball, and the NBA.

Reasons to Avoid Sweetheart Teasers

As the number of teams added to the teaser goes up, so does the juice. Likewise for the number of points. As we can see, this truly cripples your chances to beat the book and plays right into their hands. Using some slightly complicated math, we come up with these numbers for an overall average of break even on teasers.

• In three-team, 10-point teasers offered at -110, each selection needs to win 80.6% of the time.
• In a four-team, 13-point teaser at -120, the break-even rate goes up to 85.9% for each leg.
• Finally, in six-team, 21-point teasers offered at the standard -350, the break-even for each selection is a mind-blowing 95.9%!!

If you really think you can win 96%+ of the time, the sportsbooks will be happy to take your action (and your money). Be wise and generally avoid this type of wager unless you have done extensive research or have a specific reason for making the play beyond “it’s a lock!”