Sports Bets: Monster Teasers
By Loot, Sports Handicapper, Lootmeister.com
In sports-betting, there are new betting options seemingly every year to fit the diverse needs of the massive sports-wagering community. You see new types of bets and spin-offs of other known bets cropping up all the time. One of those is the monster teaser, a little remix of the well-established teaser bet.
Teasers work sort of like parlays. You pick at least two teams and they all have to win. With teasers, the obvious appeal is the ability to move points in your favor by pre-determined amounts. In basketball, you could like New York at -4, Chicago at -3, and Miami at -10. You could “tease” those 3 teams on a 5-point teaser and now be looking at New York +1, Chicago +2, and Miami -5.
A lot of people like to move the line in football. Let’s say you like the Chargers +3, Seahawks -4, and St. Louis +2. You could make a 3-team/7-point football teaser and be looking at the Chargers +10, Seahawks +3, and St. Louis +9. None of those teams can fail to cover or you don’t win the teaser.
With monster teasers, you have more free range. You can move a bet in any direction by a pre-determined amount of points. We’re talking about up to 20 points in some cases. Some online sportsbooks offer a lot of variations of this type of bet, while others have more limited options. That also applies to the number of teams you include in the teaser.
You could make a 4-team 14-point monster teaser. You’re looking at the NFL betting board and 4 games jump out and attract your attention.
Carolina vs. Chicago -5
Seattle vs. San Francisco -4
Oakland vs. Denver -7
Jacksonville vs. Tennessee -3.5
Let’s say you like all 4 home teams and favorites--Chicago, San Francisco, Denver. and Tennessee. With a 14-point teaser, you could move all those spreads 14 points in your favor and now have Chicago +9, San Francisco +10, Denver +7, and Tennessee +10.5.
That might look appetizing. It’s supposed to look good. After all, you figure that not only do you like those teams against the regular spread, but with an extra 14 points in your favor, it seems like a bonanza. At face value, it just looks doable.
The pitfalls are somewhat numerous. First of all, regular teasers don’t pay all that great, very little when compared to parlays, despite the fact that you’re asking for multiple things to happen without fail. Monster parlays naturally pay even less. When you’re asking for 4 different things to happen and you don’t even stand to win the same amount that you bet--that leaves you with very little margin for failure.
ATTENTION TEASER LOVERS! YOU CAN BET 20 POINT FOOTBALL TEASERS AT 5DIMES!
Another consideration is that the further we get from straight-bets, the more we get away from good value. A monster parlay is certainly an extravagant bet, meaning that the odds are not in everyone’s head. Everyone understands betting $105 or $110 to win $100, as is the case with straight bets. The odds of 4 teams coming within 15 points of the original spread? Not as easy to relate to. In the gambling world, rest assured that the more murky the equation is, the more you’re getting juiced.
You might be thinking that it still sounds like an attractive option. And maybe it is. Who’s to say a situation never arises to where this might be a good move? Still, over the long-haul, we’re forced to limit ourselves to very few setbacks. From week to week, we see games that go completely backwards to what was forecasted. Sure, the oddsmakers are usually sort of close. Some weeks, it seems like they have crystal balls. But it doesn’t take a lot of strange results to render this a losing proposition. A few weird games is all it takes.
Moving the spread against you in a monster parlay is more of a gutsy thing to do, though not entirely sound in most cases. If there are some cases where you are feeling exceptionally confident, it’s not that crazy to give one of these a spin for a shot at a nice payout. Then again, it definitely falls into the category of asking for trouble. Even regular teasers and parlays are bold enough. Moving points against yourself is certainly not a staple of any pro’s repertoire. Monster parlays are geared toward recreational bettors who are trying to have a little fun with sports-betting and there is nothing wrong with that. Someone who is more serious might want to treat this type of wager with kid gloves.
