Betting Pleasers at Online Sportsbooks

Two very different variations of the standard parlay bet at online sportsbooks provide an equally different challenge to cash a winner. While a ‘teaser’ bet moves the betting pointspread in your favor for a lower payout, the ‘pleaser’ bet offers a way to increase your return on investment.

Suppose you like Houston as a seven-point favorite against Jacksonville and New Orleans as a three-point favorite against Tampa Bay. The two-team pleaser at six points would change the betting spread to Houston as a 13-point favorite with New Orleans now giving 10 points to the Buccaneers.

Covering both spreads gets a lot much harder but the overall return goes from 2.64-to-1 as a standard two-team parlay play to 6-to-1 for the two-team pleaser using a six-point increase.

Top-rated online books such as Vice will take action on pleasers from two all the way up to six teams. You can also move the spread against your favor by half points from six all the way up to 10 points. Always keep in mind that adding points and/or additional teams to a pleaser dramatically lowers the winning probability of that bet.

The actual pointspread for any game is designed to create a 50/50 betting proposition between the favorite and the underdog. A six-point pleaser lowers that probability to just 38.8 percent while giving the book a built-in 61.2 percent edge. You also have to cover in every game played to further lower your odds.

You should also consult the rules and regulations for parlays, teasers and pleasers at the online book where the bet will be placed. With some books, a PUSH (or tie) in a teaser or pleaser bet may count as a loss.

Given the low winning probability of pleaser bets, many experts tend to shy away from them. The pros are not even that big on parlay plays despite the attractive return. They know that winning just one game against the spread can be hard to do. This is especially true when it comes to ultra-sharp betting lines for NFL games.

None the less, the pleaser can have a place in your overall betting strategy. Using the example above, if you are extremely confident that both Houston and New Orleans can win their game by a very comfortable margin, you may want to roll the dice on a two-team pleaser offering a very lucrative 6-to-1 return.

The odds are not in your favor so it really comes down to your overall confidence in your handicapping skills. Educated guesses should not be bet in general, especially in a pleaser format.

The best way to bet a pleaser is limiting your plays to two and moving the line just six points. The goal is to find a pair of favorites that should win their game going away. If you are going to lay 13 points in a seven-point game, you need to find a team that can win that matchup by more than two touchdowns.

The NFL and NBA as two professional leagues offer way more parity between the teams than football and basketball on the college level. Huge blowouts are far more common at this level of competition. The trick is to find an online book such as Vice that offers quite a bit of variety in the betting options on their board. It may offer pleaser opportunities for college games.