Not sure how sports betting works?

Race Horse Book provides an explanation of sports wagers and sports betting terms that are common to sports.  You can find information on money line wagers, parlays, teasers, if bets, and European odds.  We provide plenty of examples and walk you through the bet.

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Included is a discussion of pari-mutuel betting, betting options, placing a bet at the track, payoff calculations, and the track cut.

Teasers

A teaser is a parlay in which you adjust the point spread or total of each individual bet.

Like a parlay, a teaser is a single wager that links together several individual bets (generally from 2 to 8 in the case of teasers).  You can combine a series of straight bets, over/under bets, or any mixture of the two.  A teaser allows you to buy points - adjust the point spread or totals in your favor - on the individual bets that comprise the multi-part wager.  Adjusting the spread and/or the totals gives you more favorable odds, thus less of a return on your wager.

You cannot select different point adjustments for the different bets: the amount of points you buy will be applied to all of the individual bets that comprise the teaser.  You cannot buy, say, 4 points on one game and 5 on another.

What are the advantages of playing a teaser rather than a series of individual buy wagers?  You receive significantly better odds than you would playing the adjusted money line wagers.  Also, compared to a money line wager, the teaser generally offers you a greater number of points with which to adjust the point spreads and totals.  The disadvantages?  As in a parlay, winning two out of three or three out of four is still a loss.  If those winning bets had been individual wagers, you would have come out ahead.  As always, going for a bigger payout entails a bigger risk.

Typical Teaser Payouts