How to win online roulette?

Roulette is a staple at casinos all over the world, both physical and online. It’s considered a pretty simple game based mostly on chance, but there are a few tricks that can help you win big at the table. Check out our best tips and enjoy your winnings!

Top tips for online roulette

How to play roulette? You can find the game at pretty much any online casino. It’s often the most popular one thanks to its simplicity paired with the extraordinary excitement of every spin. The winnings can get quite large – the maximum amount is 35 times the largest bet you can make. There are many ways to play online roulette, with varying returns. If you’re planning a successful strategy, you should keep in mind some of our most important tips.

Learn your roulette variants

It’s worth noting that despite the main roulette variations being very similar, the small differences can and do affect the odds, as well as your potential winnings. You can usually play either European or American roulette, with the second one having an additional double zero at the wheel.

The odds stay unchanged, though, which means that you can get a slight edge when playing European-style roulette. For example, the probability of landing a ‘Straight Up’ bet (choosing a single number for the spin) is 2.7% on European wheels, but 2.63% when using American rules. Those minor differences might not look like much at a first glance, but they can really add up!

There’s also a less popular French variant, which can prove to be more profitable than the player. Under French roulette rules, a spin landing on the zero means that the bettor gets back half of his stake. Some online casinos also offer ‘mini’ versions and variants with multiple wheels.

Maybe outside bets?

An ‘outside bet’ is a term originating in horse racing, where it’s used to describe any bet on a horse having more than 100:1 odds. However, in roulette, it has a different meaning – it means betting on the number groupings placed literally ‘outside’ the regular table area with red and black numbers. Those are associated with either evens or 2:1 odds. While ‘inside bets’ mean backing between one and six numbers, outside bets can be done in three ways:

• 50/50 bets (which actually have a slightly smaller chance to land than 50/50 because of the green ‘zero’ field) – red/black or odd/even;
• low/high bets, that is picking a group of numbers from the bottom or top half: 1-18 or 19-36;
• so-called ‘dozens’ – betting on 1-12, 13-24 or 25-36;
• column bets – similarly to the dozens, the player picks a column with 12 numbers.

The odds for the first two bets are 1:1, whereas dozens and column bets are priced 2:1. The probability of landing an outside bet is much higher than in the case of an inside bet, so with some luck you can safely build up your bank at the casino placing these bets.

Combine your bets

If you want to increase your probability of landing a bet, it’s a good idea to cover a bigger part of the wheel. You can do so by using combination bets – there are a lot of options to choose from, like split bets (picking two numbers next to each other), corner bets (choosing a ‘block’ of four numbers) or line bets (two rows, which means six numbers).

Don’t focus on casino guidance

The easiest way to lose your money at the casino is losing your concentration and letting your choices be influenced by any other party. This includes the casino itself as well – their goal is just the same as yours: to go out with more money than you came in with. As a result, the casino guidance will not always be in your favor. It’s best to stick to your strategy and keep a cool head throughout the game.

Strategy that suits you

Each person has different risk tolerance, which means that not all strategies will be equally viable for everyone. You have to look through the rules of each one of them, and then pick the right one for you. There are a lot of approaches to choose from – here’s a list of the most common online roulette strategies.

• Constant bets – when it comes to simplicity, it can’t get easier than that: you just keep betting the same amount, usually on the same number. The strategy operates on the assumption that over time you should hit the given number enough times to finish with a profit.
• Fibonacci – just like its mathematical sequence namesake, it’s based on adding the last two numbers: in this case, your bets. You start off with a single ‘unit’ to bet with (depending on your bankroll, it can be any amount of money), and after placing two bets with that amount, any subsequent bet sizes are determined by adding the two previous ones. Then you keep following this pattern – which should come out to 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and so on – with every loss, whereas a win usually means going back three steps in the sequence. The main advantage of this roulette strategy is being able to recover your losses very quickly once you hit a winning bet.
• Martingale – it’s very similar to the Fibonacci roulette strategy, with exactly the same advantages. The difference is that it’s much easier to calculate the bet amounts: you just keep doubling the previous losing bet until you land a successful bet. There’s also the reverse Martingale strategy, which involves doubling winning bets and reducing the stake after a loss. Both Martingale variations work best when choosing bets with even odds.

How does roulette work?

It’s a simple yet very exciting game. Each round starts with players placing their bets at the table – either on specific fields on the wheel, or groupings with multiple numbers. Then, the croupier spins the wheel and the ball, which goes in the opposite direction to the wheel. After a while, the ball falls onto the wheel, landing on any of the 37 (European) or 38 (American) spots, also called ‘pockets’. Depending on your wager, you can either lose your stake, or win some money according to the odds of your bet.

Design of roulette table

The roulette wheel is accompanied by the rectangular table, which is used to place bets. All variations share the same basic layout: there are three columns of numbers from 1 to 36, mostly (but not always) alternating between red and black background. On the sides you can find combination bets – usually ‘1^st 12’, ‘2^nd 12’, ‘3^rd 12’, ‘1 to 18’, ‘19 to 36’, odd, even, black, red, and ‘2 to 1’ under the columns. At the top, there’s either a single zero or a zero paired with ‘00’, depending on the variation you’re playing. It’s worth noting that the numbers on the wheel are in a different order, but the colors are always alternating.

Basic types of bets

We’ve covered some of those in the tips section, but it’s worth getting the basic bets all in one place. The inside bets include:

• ‘Straight Up’ or single – a single number;
• ‘Split’ – two adjacent numbers on the table;
• ‘Street’ – three numbers in a horizontal line;
• ‘Corner’ or ‘Square’ – four numbers next to each other, making a square shape;
• ‘Double Street’ – two horizontal lines of numbers, giving six numbers in total;
• ‘Trio’ – betting on the zero paired with either 1-2 or 2-3;
• ‘First Four’ or ‘Basket’ – betting on the first three numbers along with the zero in European rules (‘First Four’) or both the single and double zero in American rules (‘Basket’).

The outside bets cover a larger part of the table – those include columns, high/low bets, colors, even/odd bets, and picking a grouping of 1-12, 13-24 or 25-36.

What if I lose money?

It’s worth keeping in mind that even with the best strategy, you need some luck to win at the physical or online roulette wheel. Losing is quite literally part of the game – it’s important to be prepared mentally for that. A good idea is to implement a staking plan that will keep you from losing more than you planned to wager. You also have to always keep in mind the golden rule of gambling: don’t bet more than you can afford to lose.

Learn on free roulette games

Want to find out what’s the best roulette strategy without risking your real money? It’s very easy thanks to free online roulette. You can find various websites offering this kind of roulette game – usually the bets are based on virtual tokens, which are assigned in equal amounts to all players at the start. It’s a safe way to test out strategies and learn how to win roulette.

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