NFL Teaser Tips for 2025-26 - How to Use Updated Wong Teaser Strategy

Have you ever checked out a sportsbook’s NFL betting lines and noticed something like this?

Profit proposition

Teasers with NFL totals

But what about totals? Quite simply, it is wise to avoid teasing NFL totals because any point stretch of totals will never come close in cumulative frequency to an equal point stretch in spreads that includes three and seven. 

For example, the highest six-point cumulative frequency in totals is about 19% (typically from 40-45), whereas the six-point stretch going from three through seven has a frequency of 44%. By playing a total in this example, you are reducing your cumulative frequency by 2.3x.

The one thing totals can help us with when it comes to teasers is helping us get the most out of the type of spreads we pick. Lower totals fundamentally imply that each point in that game is harder to come by. So intuitively, each point we’re gaining on a low total game spread adds to our frequency sum. 

However, this low-total idea isn’t an original one, which brings us to the holy grail of teasers.

The Wong Teaser

In his book Sharp Sports Betting, Stanford Wong outlined a teaser strategy that would aptly be named and referred to in the industry as the “Wong Teaser.”

The 6-point teaser

The gist of it is:

• Play a two-team, six-point teaser
• Only play favorites of -7.5 to -8.5 and underdogs from +1.5 to +2.5

Wong Teasers provided high profits for over a decade. They were so profitable that Stanford Wong arguably changed the way books offer their lines and how they price and grade wagers.

You can look at any sportsbook today and see his influence:

• Prices of two-team teasers have become shorter
• Many books now grade any teaser with a push leg in it as a loss
• Books deliberately try to stay out of the -7.5 to -8.5 and +1.5 to +2.5 ranges

Therefore, we adapt. Many bettors have made adjustments to help improve the theoretical profit of Wong Teasers to combat the increased difficulty caused by books' adjustments over the years. Some have proven to show some promise, such as limiting it to spreads from games with totals of 49 or lower (which adds about 1.0% to the hit rate of each individual leg). Others have suggested limiting it to just home teams for both favorites and underdogs. 

However, my data has shown that restricting teaser legs to home teams has reduced the hit rate of those legs by 2-3%, whereas exclusively playing road teams has increased the hit rate of those legs by around 3.0-4.5%. This intuitively makes sense given the diminishing effect of home-field advantage and how that diminishing rate has outpaced Vegas’ pricing of home teams. 

To review, my suggested updated Wong Teaser strategy moving forward would be the following:

• Play two-team, six-point teasers (look for -110 odds)
• Only play favorites of -7.5 to -8.5 and underdogs from +1.5 to +2.5
• Only play games with totals of 49 or less
• Only play road teams

The 10-point teaser

A 10-point Wong teaser follows the same principle as the 6-point version but extends the margin of adjustment by 10 points instead of 6. This means that underdogs in the +1.5 to +2.5 range can be teased all the way up to +11.5 or +12.5, and favorites in the -7.5 to -8.5 range can be teased down to -1.5 or -2.5. By moving the line even further through the key numbers of 3 and 7 (and often beyond), a bettor captures a much larger range of common final scores. The added buffer significantly reduces the risk of losing to typical NFL scoring margins, making the teaser appear much safer on the surface.

However, the tradeoff with a 10-point Wong teaser is the reduced payout and increased requirement for more legs. Sportsbooks generally require three teams or more for a 10-point teaser, which means while each individual leg becomes statistically more likely to win, the bettor must still hit all three for a profit. This can water down the long-term edge because variance increases with additional games. That said, disciplined bettors sometimes use 10-point Wong teasers in low-total games where scoring is projected to be tighter, maximizing the protection of extra points. The strategy remains rooted in the Wong concept, but demands careful selection and recognition that the safer-looking cushion comes at the cost of higher risk through more required plays.

NFL teasers betting guide for the 2025-26 season

Betting NFL teasers, especially Wong teasers, becomes far more strategic with the tools available on Covers. A smart starting point is our NFL Scores & Matchups page, which shows current point spreads across multiple sportsbooks. This allows you to quickly spot when underdogs in the +1.5 to +2.5 range or favorites in the -7.5 to -8.5 range are available for a classic Wong teaser play.

Pairing this with NFL team stats, head-to-head history, and situational data helps you evaluate whether teasing those lines across key numbers (3 and 7) truly adds value. You can then check the NFL Picks section, where Covers experts analyze spreads and trends, and compare them to consensus picks from the betting community, which is useful for identifying spots where the public may be inflating or underestimating certain teams.

Beyond matchup and pick analysis, Covers provides tools that sharpen teaser betting angles. Our cutting-edge NFL Prop Projections tool can signal when game pace or offensive/defensive strengths point toward tight, lower-scoring matchups—ideal conditions for Wong teasers since points are at a premium. Weather factors on the NFL Weather page and lineup updates from the NFL Injuries page are also critical, as wind, snow, or the absence of a star quarterback can suppress scoring and make teased spreads even stronger.

Covers also offers betting calculators and odds converters so you understand the math behind teaser payouts. With these tools in hand, you can build teasers with confidence, using data-driven insights rather than gut instinct.

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