Common Mistakes in Teaser Betting: What to Avoid When Building Teasers

Teaser betting can be a disciplined way to structure NFL wagers, but most bettors sabotage their results by making avoidable mistakes. This guide walks through the most common teaser betting errors, explains why they cost you money, and shows you how to fix them. Whether you are teasing through zero, ignoring push rules, or stacking too many legs, these mistakes turn what could be break-even or slightly positive bets into long-term losers. By the end of this guide, you will know exactly what to avoid and how to build teasers that respect the math behind key numbers, pricing, and sportsbook rules.

Mistake 1: Teasing Through Zero

Teasing through zero is one of the most common and costly mistakes in teaser betting. When you tease a line like -2.5 to +3.5, you are paying for six points that cross through zero. The problem is that very few NFL games end with the favorite winning by exactly one or two points. You are spending teaser equity on a range that adds almost no practical value.

Key numbers in the NFL are 3 and 7. Those are the margins that show up most often in final scores because of how football is scored. When you tease through zero instead of crossing those key numbers, you are wasting the main advantage that teasers offer. The points you buy should move you across the most common scoring margins, not through empty space in the middle of the distribution.

A better approach is to focus on lines that cross both 3 and 7. For example, teasing a favorite from -8.5 to -2.5 or an underdog from +2.5 to +8.5 puts you on the right side of the two most important numbers in football. If your line does not cross at least one key number, and ideally both, you should reconsider whether a teaser is the right bet type.

Why Zero Is Not a Key Number

Zero might feel like a significant threshold because it represents the line between favorites and underdogs, but scoring patterns do not support that intuition. NFL games rarely end in ties, and the margins that cluster around zero are not nearly as common as margins of 3 or 7. When you pay to move a line from -2.5 to +3.5, you are effectively buying insurance against one-point and two-point losses, which happen far less often than three-point or seven-point margins.

This mistake often happens when bettors build teasers based on how lines look rather than how they perform. A -2.5 favorite teased to +3.5 might feel safe, but the math shows you are better off either taking the -2.5 straight or finding a different line that crosses meaningful key numbers when teased.

Examples of Teasing Through Zero

Here are three common examples of teasing through zero that should be avoided:

Example 1: Favorite from -2.5 to +3.5 You are paying for six points to move from a short favorite to a short underdog. Most of those points cross through zero and the low single digits, which are not high-frequency margins in the NFL.

Example 2: Underdog from -1.5 to +4.5 This crosses 3, which is good, but it also wastes points moving through zero and +1/+2. You would be better off finding an underdog closer to +2.5 that can be teased to +8.5.

Example 3: Favorite from -4.5 to +1.5 Again, you are moving through zero without crossing 7. This is a weak use of teaser points that rarely justifies the price you pay.

The fix is simple: avoid lines that require you to tease through zero. Stick to favorites around -7.5 to -8.5 and underdogs around +1.5 to +2.5, where six points move you across both 3 and 7.

Mistake 2: Ignoring Push and Void Rules

Every sportsbook has different rules for how they handle pushes and voided legs in teasers, and ignoring those rules can turn a winning strategy into a losing one. Some books treat a push on one leg of a two-team teaser as a loss for the entire ticket. Others treat it as a void, reducing your teaser to a straight bet at a different price. The difference between these two approaches can have a massive impact on your long-term results.

If you are building teasers without checking push rules first, you are essentially betting blind. Two sportsbooks might offer the same teaser price, but one might have generous push-as-void rules while the other grades pushes as losses. The effective value of those two teasers is completely different, even if the headline odds look identical.

How Push Rules Vary by Sportsbook

Most US sportsbooks fall into one of three categories when it comes to push handling:

Push-as-void: If one leg pushes, the teaser reduces by one leg and is graded at a lower payout.

Push-as-loss: If one leg pushes, the entire teaser loses.

Special rules: Some books have different rules for two-leg versus three-plus-leg teasers, or special teaser types with unique grading.

Before you place any teaser, you need to know which category your book falls into. Check the rules section, test with small stakes if needed, or contact customer support. This is not optional if you want to bet teasers seriously.

Impact on Expected Value

Push rules directly affect your expected value. Imagine you are building a classic Wong teaser with two legs, and both legs have a chance of landing on a key number and pushing. If your book treats pushes as losses, you need a higher win rate on each leg to break even. If pushes are treated as voids, your effective risk is lower.

The math can swing by several percentage points depending on how frequently you are teasing onto or near common push numbers like 3 and 7. That difference compounds over dozens of bets and can turn a slightly +EV strategy into a -EV one without you realizing it.

Example Scenarios

Scenario 1: Push-as-void book You place a two-leg teaser at -110. One leg wins, one leg pushes. The book grades the teaser as a straight bet on the winning leg, and you get paid at different odds. You do not lose your stake.

Scenario 2: Push-as-loss book Same teaser, same outcome. One leg wins, one leg pushes. The book grades the entire teaser as a loss. You lose your full stake.

This is why push rules are not fine print you can skip. They are core to understanding what you are actually betting.

Mistake 3: Adding Too Many Legs

Every extra leg you add to a teaser increases your potential payout, but it also increases the number of ways your bet can lose. Most bettors underestimate how quickly the probability of hitting all legs drops as you add more teams. A two-leg teaser with 75 percent legs has a 56 percent chance of hitting. Add a third leg at the same rate and your chance drops to 42 percent. Add a fourth and you are below 32 percent.

The pricing on three- and four-leg teasers often does not compensate for this added risk. In many cases, you are better off placing two separate two-leg teasers or a mix of two-leg teasers and straight bets, rather than stacking everything into one fragile multi-leg ticket.

Long teaser combinations also make it harder to track your edge. With two legs, you can analyze each one and understand whether your teaser is +EV. With five or six legs, the math becomes messy, correlation between games becomes harder to model, and you are more likely to include at least one weak leg just to fill out the slip.

Why Fewer Legs Is Almost Always Better

The discipline of two-leg teasers forces you to focus on your best spots. You cannot just throw in a random game because it looks good or because you want more action. Each leg has to meet strict criteria, and you have to believe that both legs together justify the teaser price.

With three or more legs, that discipline often breaks down. You start adding marginal legs, games you would not bet straight, or matchups that do not fit classic Wong criteria. The extra legs feel like they are adding value, but in reality they are diluting your edge and increasing variance.

Payout vs Probability Trade-Off

Here is a simplified example of how probabilities compound:

Two-leg teaser: If each leg is 75 percent, combined probability is 56.25 percent.

Three-leg teaser: If each leg is 75 percent, combined probability is 42.19 percent.

Four-leg teaser: If each leg is 75 percent, combined probability is 31.64 percent.

Unless the teaser price improves significantly with each added leg, you are taking on more risk for less effective return. Most books do not offer pricing that justifies the drop-off in hit rate, especially when you factor in correlation and variance.

When Three-Plus-Leg Teasers Might Make Sense

There are rare situations where a three-leg teaser might be justified, usually when you have three extremely strong legs that all meet strict Wong criteria, the teaser price is unusually good, and the book has favorable push rules. Even then, you should run the numbers through a teaser calculator to confirm the math works.

In most cases, sticking to two-leg teasers is the smart default. It keeps your process clean, your edge clear, and your bankroll safer from high-variance swings.

Mistake 4: Not Shopping for the Best Teaser Price

Teaser pricing can vary significantly from book to book, and failing to shop for the best price is one of the easiest mistakes to fix. A two-leg, 6-point NFL teaser might be priced at -110 at one sportsbook and -130 at another. That 20-cent difference might not seem like much on a single bet, but over dozens of teasers it adds up to a meaningful gap in your long-term results.

Shopping for teaser prices is just as important as shopping for the best spread or total on a straight bet. In many cases, the difference in price can be the difference between a +EV teaser and a -EV one. If you are only using one sportsbook for all your teasers, you are almost certainly leaving money on the table.

How to Compare Teaser Prices Across Books

Start by identifying which legal sportsbooks are available in your state. Open accounts at multiple books, then compare the teaser pricing for the same leg count, point count, and sport. Some books will be consistently cheaper on NFL teasers, while others might have better pricing on basketball or alternative teaser structures.

Keep a simple spreadsheet or mental note of which books offer the best teaser prices for your most common bet types. Over time, you will develop a feel for where to place your action based on the specific teasers you are building each week.

You can also use our Teaser Bet Calculator to estimate the expected value of different teaser prices and see how much that 10 or 20 cents actually matters over the long run.

Why Even Small Price Differences Matter

If you are betting 50 teasers over a season, the difference between -110 and -130 pricing can cost you several units even if your win rate stays exactly the same. That is real money that you are handing to the sportsbook simply because you did not take an extra minute to check prices.

Line shopping is one of the few edges in sports betting that is completely under your control. You do not need to predict games better or build a complex model. You just need to compare a few numbers and place your bet at the book with the best price. If you are serious about teaser betting, this should be automatic.

Mistake 5: Teasing Totals Without Adjusting Strategy

Many bettors assume that teasing totals works the same way as teasing sides, but totals have different distributional properties and do not benefit from key numbers in the same way. While 3 and 7 are powerful on NFL spreads, totals do not have the same clustering around specific numbers. Teasing a total from 47.5 to 41.5 or 53.5 might feel safer, but you are not crossing the same high-frequency margins that make side teasers attractive.

This does not mean you should never tease totals, but it does mean you need a different framework. You cannot just copy Wong teaser logic onto totals and expect the same results. If you are going to include totals in your teasers, you need to understand how scoring patterns, pace, and game environment affect total distributions, and you need to price your bets accordingly.

Why Totals Are Different from Sides

Sides in NFL games cluster tightly around key numbers because of how football is scored. Totals, on the other hand, are influenced by a wider range of factors including pace, turnovers, time of possession, and weather. While certain totals might appear more often than others, the effect is much weaker than the 3 and 7 clustering you see on spreads.

When you tease a total, you are buying points in a more continuous distribution. That can still have value, especially if you believe the total is mispriced, but it is not the same structural advantage you get from crossing key numbers on a side.

When Teasing Totals Might Make Sense

Teasing totals can make sense in specific situations, such as games with extreme weather, low expected pace, or strong defensive matchups where you believe the market is overestimating scoring. In those cases, moving a total by six points can give you meaningful breathing room.

But those situations should be treated as exceptions, not the default. If you are building a teaser for the structural edge that comes from crossing key numbers, stick to sides. If you want to tease totals, do it as a separate strategy with different filters and expectations.

Mistake 6: Blindly Following Old Wong Teaser Advice

Wong teasers became popular in the early 2000s when teaser pricing was much more favorable and sportsbooks had not yet adjusted their lines to account for sharp teaser action. Many bettors still follow old advice from that era without realizing that the market has changed dramatically. Teaser prices have moved from around +100 to -120 or worse, push rules have tightened, and books are much more aware of which lines are vulnerable to teaser strategies.

Blindly copying a Wong teaser strategy from 2005 into the 2025 market is a fast way to lose money. The core logic of crossing key numbers still matters, but the pricing and rules have shifted enough that you cannot assume the old edge still exists. You need to evaluate every teaser in the current market environment, with current prices and current rules.

How the Market Has Adjusted

Sportsbooks now price teasers more aggressively, especially on NFL sides. They have also adjusted how they handle pushes, correlation, and certain line combinations. Some books even offer dynamic teaser pricing that changes based on the specific legs you are trying to tease, rather than a flat rate for all two-leg teasers.

This means that a Wong teaser that would have been +EV at +100 in 2005 might be -EV at -130 in 2025, even if the underlying leg win rates have not changed. The edge has been squeezed out by better bookmaking, and bettors who have not updated their approach are playing a losing game.

How to Adapt Wong Teaser Strategy for 2025

The fix is to treat Wong teasers as a starting framework, not a guaranteed system. Use the same filters for qualifying lines, but always check the actual teaser price you are being offered and compare it to your estimated edge. Run your teasers through a calculator, shop for the best price, and be ready to pass if the numbers do not work.

You should also stay flexible. If you find a sportsbook with unusually good teaser pricing or generous push rules, that might tip a marginal spot into +EV territory. But you cannot rely on decades-old advice as if nothing has changed.

For a deeper dive into modern Wong teaser strategy, see our Wong Teaser Strategy Guide.

Mistake 7: Chasing Losses with Bigger Teasers

Teasers can feel safe because you are moving lines in your favor, which makes them a tempting choice when you are trying to recover from a losing streak. This is one of the most dangerous mistakes in teaser betting. Chasing losses by increasing your stake or adding more legs to your teasers rarely ends well.

Teasers are still high-variance bets, and moving lines in your favor does not eliminate the risk of losing. When you chase losses, you are compounding that risk by betting more than you should on bets that may not have an edge. The psychological pressure of needing to win back what you lost also makes it harder to stick to your filters and discipline.

Why Chasing Losses Backfires

Chasing losses backfires because it breaks the process that makes teaser betting work. Smart teaser betting is about finding spots where the price, the lines, and the rules align to give you a small edge. When you are chasing, you stop caring about the edge and start caring about getting even. You add weak legs, you ignore price differences, and you bet more than your bankroll can handle.

Even if you get lucky and win a few chase bets, the habit is corrosive. It teaches you to rely on luck instead of process, and it sets you up for bigger losses the next time variance turns against you.

How to Avoid the Chase

The best way to avoid chasing is to set strict bankroll rules before you start betting and to stick to those rules no matter what happens in the short term. Decide in advance how much of your bankroll you are willing to risk on teasers in a given week, and do not exceed that limit even if you lose every bet.

You should also track your results honestly. If you are consistently losing on teasers, that is a signal to re-evaluate your strategy, not to bet bigger. Take a break, review your filters, and make sure you are not making one of the other mistakes on this list.

If you find that you are chasing losses or betting more than you can afford to lose, that is a sign that betting is no longer fun. Use the tools and resources available through legal sportsbooks, such as deposit limits and self-exclusion, to regain control.

Mistake 8: Ignoring Correlation Between Legs

Some bettors try to build same-game teasers by combining the side and the total from the same game, or by teasing both sides of a rivalry or division game in the same week. This introduces correlation, which can either help or hurt your teaser depending on the situation. Ignoring correlation entirely is a mistake because it can lead to situations where both legs are more likely to lose together than you expect.

For example, if you tease a favorite down and tease the total down in the same game, those two legs are positively correlated. If the favorite wins big, the total is more likely to go over, which means your under is more likely to lose. You are not getting the full benefit of two independent legs, even though you are paying the same teaser price.

Types of Correlation to Watch For

Same-game correlation: Teasing both the side and the total from the same game. This can work in specific cases, but you need to understand how the two bets interact.

Division or rivalry correlation: Teasing multiple games from the same division or week can introduce correlation if weather, injuries, or market sentiment affects multiple teams in the same way.

Market-wide correlation: If you are teasing multiple favorites in a week where the market is heavily tilted toward favorites, you might find that all your legs lose together if underdogs have a big week.

The fix is to be intentional about correlation. If you are going to tease correlated legs, make sure you understand how they interact and that the price justifies the risk. In most cases, independent legs are safer and cleaner.

Mistake 9: Using Teasers When Straight Bets Are Better

Sometimes the best teaser bet is no teaser at all. If you believe a line is significantly mispriced in your favor, you are often better off taking the straight bet at standard odds rather than paying a premium to move the line further in your favor. Teasers are most useful when you want to buy margin for error, not when you have a strong directional edge.

For example, if you think a -7.5 favorite should really be -10.5, taking -7.5 at -110 is likely better value than teasing it to -1.5 at -120. You are giving up expected value by paying for points you do not need. Teasers should be used strategically, not as a default for every bet.

How to Decide Between Teasers and Straight Bets

Ask yourself two questions:

1. Do I have a strong opinion on this game, or am I just trying to buy safety?
2. Does the teaser price justify the points I am buying?

If you have a strong opinion, a straight bet is usually better. If you are buying points to cross key numbers and the price is fair, a teaser might make sense. But if you are using teasers just because they feel safer, you are probably making a mistake.

You can use our Teaser Bet Calculator to compare the expected value of a teaser versus a straight bet and see which one actually offers better value given your assumptions.

Mistake 10: Not Tracking Your Teaser Results

The only way to know if your teaser strategy is working is to track your results over time. Most bettors do not keep records, which means they have no idea whether they are winning or losing on teasers, which mistakes they are making most often, or where their edge actually comes from.

Without tracking, you are betting blind. You might think you are making smart teasers because you remember the wins, but you forget the losses. You might be repeating the same mistakes every week without realizing it.

What to Track

At a minimum, you should track:

• Date and teams for each teaser
• Number of legs and teaser points
• Teaser price you paid
• Sportsbook you used
• Result and payout
• Whether each leg met your filters

Over time, this data will show you patterns. You might find that three-leg teasers are killing your results, or that you are consistently losing when you tease totals, or that one sportsbook has better pricing than the others. That information is invaluable for refining your strategy.

How to Use Your Data

Once you have a few months of data, review it regularly. Calculate your win rate, your ROI, and your average teaser price. Compare those numbers to what you expected based on your filters and your estimated edge.

If your results are worse than expected, go back through your bets and look for patterns. Are you making one of the mistakes on this list? Are you ignoring your own filters? Are you betting at the wrong books?

If your results are better than expected, figure out why. Maybe you are finding value that others are missing, or maybe you are just running hot. Either way, the data will help you understand what is working and what needs to change.

How to Fix These Mistakes

Fixing teaser betting mistakes starts with awareness. If you recognize yourself making any of the mistakes on this list, the good news is that they are all fixable with discipline and process.

Here is a simple checklist to use before placing any teaser:

1. Does every leg cross at least one key number, ideally both 3 and 7?
2. Am I avoiding lines that tease through zero?
3. Do I know the push and void rules at this sportsbook?
4. Am I sticking to two legs, or do I have a very strong reason to add more?
5. Have I shopped for the best teaser price across multiple books?
6. Is this teaser better value than placing straight bets on the same games?
7. Am I betting within my bankroll limits and not chasing losses?
8. Am I tracking this bet so I can review my results later?

If you can answer yes to all of those questions, you are in much better shape than most teaser bettors. Over time, avoiding these common mistakes will improve your results and help you build a sustainable, disciplined approach to teaser betting.

Try the Teaser Bet Calculator

Use our teaser calculator to check the math on your teasers before you place them. It will show you the expected value of your teaser based on the price, the number of legs, and the estimated win rate of each leg.

Final Thoughts

Avoiding common teaser betting mistakes is more important than finding the perfect teaser spot. Most bettors lose on teasers not because they pick bad games, but because they ignore price, violate basic key number principles, or let emotions drive their bet size. If you can avoid the mistakes in this guide, you will be ahead of the majority of teaser bettors, even if your handicapping is average.

For more on teaser betting strategy, see our complete Teaser Betting Guide and our Wong Teaser Strategy Guide.