Should You Ever Bet on Accumulators and Teasers?
Recently we did a series on common types of sports wagers, including accumulators and teasers. These types of bets are more complex than single bets, because they combine straight bets and/or totals into a group. With an accumulator, you need to win every bet in a group of straight bets in order to win the accumulator. If you lose just one bet in the parlay, you lose the entire parlay. Accumulators can range anywhere from two teams up to around 10 teams or sports events. A teaser is similar to an accumulator, except that additional points are involved. These points move the lines. As with accumulators, you need to win all of the straight bets included in the teaser to win the teaser.
It is one thing to talk about how these bets work. But it is another thing altogether to talk about whether you should get involved with them. Accumulators and teasers are very common, and a lot of gamblers wager on them. But should you? Take a cursory look around at sports betting resources, and you will find a lot of experts telling you to absolutely, unequivocally ignore them.
Why would you do that? As a newbie, you may find this advice a bit counterintuitive. You may feel like right now at the beginning of the learning curve, you are stuck with simple straight bets, and you may be looking forward to when you have more advanced knowledge and skills and can “step up” to more complex types of bets.
In reality, though, complex does not necessarily equate to “smarter” or “better.” The odds on accumulators and teasers get worse with every team you add—significantly worse, actually. A parlay with four or five teams is going to offer much worse odds than one involving just two or three teams. And as you move up toward 10 teams, you will find yourself looking at some of the worst odds in the entire world of sports betting.
“Right, but also the best payouts,” you may be thinking. That much is true, in theory. If you were to win a 10-team parlay, you would get an extraordinary payout, but that if is such a marginal possibility it is hardly worth considering unless you have some unbelievable insight into the events in question.
For that reason, if you are going to bet on teasers and accumulators at all, I recommend you stick with two- and three-team wagers, and try not to go far above that unless you have a very good reason. If you do, by all means, go for it. Use your knowledge and leverage it for huge payouts. But recognize that the higher you climb up the parlay ladder, the worst the odds against you will be, until they are downright absurd.
There is nothing “advanced” about placing overly complex wagers. Oftentimes the best long-term betting strategy for huge profits over time is a series of unrelated straight bets. Keep the odds in your favour, and make smart bet after smart bet, and you will climb the ladder of success. Of course, if you are betting mostly just to have fun, and are not so worried about profit, feel free to wager on any kind of bet you want. Just do it knowledgeably and in full awareness of the risks you are taking!