Basically, this means splitting your bet and placing it on 5 numbers that are next to each other on the roulette wheel. If you want to bet on a certain number, also wagering on its neighbours appears to be a good idea – the logic is that you will increase your chances of. The best bet in roulette is on a European roulette table which offers the en prison option. This reduces the house edge by half again, making it only 1.35%. Here’s how it works: On a European roulette game with the en prison rule in effect, your even money bet becomes “imprisoned” when the ball lands on the zero.

• What Is The Safest Bet In Roulette
• Best Roulette Bets
• What Is The Best Bet In Roulette

Roulette remains one of the world’s most iconic table games, and one that combines both betting strategy and opportunism with effortless ease.

It’s also a relatively straightforward game, and has been “one of the most popular casino pastimes for centuries”, according to online-casinos.com. Put simply, your task is to wager on a number, combination of numbers or alternative outcome while the ball spins on a roulette wheel.

If the ball lands on a slot that corresponds to your wager, you’ll win. If not, you’ll lose your stake ahead of the next spin.

Interestingly, roulette is also a game packed full of interesting rules, bets and side bets. We’ll explore the latter below, while asking how these can impact on the game and your chances of winning.

Roulette – The House Edge and Probability

Every roulette iteration that you play will follow this basic premise, but each one will also have minor differences that impact on everything from the gameplay to your fundamental odds of winning.

This is what makes roulette one of the most exciting games to play in the digital age, even in an increasingly competitive and diverse marketplace.

Even on a basic level, there’s French, European and American roulette versions, the latter of which feature a roulette wheel with two ‘zero’ slots and a significantly higher house edge of around 5.3%.

Conversely, French and European iterations have a house edge of just 2.7%, creating an effective return-to-player (RTP) ration of 97.3% for every £1 wagered on average.

It’s also interesting to note that French roulette versions aren’t widely available in the UK, which is why the European iteration remains the most popular format online.

Appraising the Available Bets – What do You Need to Know?

When it comes to wagering, your options are split into two main categories: inside and outside bets.

The former refers to wagers placed on single digits or a combination of numbers and tend to offer the longest odds and highest potential returns.

For example, a ‘straight-up’ wager requires you to bet on a single number, with this paying out at the generous price of 35:1 when playing European roulette. However, such odds are also prohibitive, so this is a risky betting strategy that’s only recommended for players with large bankrolls.

The ‘split’ bet sees you place a chip between two different numbers, having the available odds to 17:1 and the subsequent value of the pay-out.

Similarly, street and corner bets cover targeted lines and sections of the roulette wheel, while paying out at odds of 11:1 and 8:1 respectively.

Line bets are also available and very similar to street wagers, except for the fact that they cover two rows of three numbers (such as 1-6) instead of one row of three. This remains one of the most popular inside bets, and one that pays out at odds of around 5:1.

When it comes to outside bets, there are other factors that you can wager on that offer much higher odds of winning but considerably smaller returns.

These include dozen and column bets, for example, both of which cover 12 numbers overall and provide a 2 in 1 chance of success. As you’d expect, this pays out at 2:1, and offers an appealing value proposition in terms of bet coverage and rewards over an extended period of time.

On a final note, there are four additional outside bets that pay-out at 1:1, and offer a 50% chance of coming in.

These require you to make a choice between black and red, even and odd and low or high numbers, each of which affords you access to approximately half of the roulette wheel.

In the case of the latter, any digit between one and 18 is classed as a low number, while those placed between 19 and 36 represent high numbers. So, you’ll simply speculate on which category the result of the next spin will land, affording you a relatively good chance of securing a return on your stake.

The Last Word

Most gambling disciplines are games of chance, which means that players have minimal control over specific outcomes.

This definitely includes roulette, even though players can deploy a betting strategy and optimise their coverage of the wheel to optimise their chances of winning over time.

To this end, there are some additional side bets available in roulette, including call wagers. Only accessible in physical European and French roulette iterations, these wagers are announced verbally instead of you placing your money on the table at a land-based casino.

From an online player’s perspective, there are other side wagers available in some roulette versions. One such option is the basket bet, which requires you to cover numbers 0,1,2 and 3 with your take and pays out at around 6:1.

Then there’s the unique snake bet, which covers the seemingly random numbers of 1,5,9,12,14,16,19,23,27,30 and 32 with a single wager.

This bet is so-called because of the snake-like pattern that forms when you highlight these numbers, while it pays out at odds of 2:1 on average.

Roulette – in movies, on TV, and in literature, it’s often depicted as glamorous, exciting, and ridiculously lucrative for whichever character is playing. While winning big at the spinning wheel seems like a fantasy reserved for James Bond and other fictional high rollers, it is possible to minimize risk and win big at the same time by knowing the best roulette bets. It all comes down to the numbers, and how you want to play them.

In American Roulette there are 38 numbers – 1 through 36, a single zero, and a double zero. Besides the latter two, half the numbers are red, half are black, half are even, and half are odd. The 0 and 00 are green and obviously not even or odd. Betting on those will earn you a payout of 35:1 – but more on all that later.

Now that we’ve got the bare bones of the Roulette wheel and the felt laid out, let’s flesh out only some of the best roulette bets you have to choose from.

Roulette Bet 1 : Red/Black, Evens/Odds, 1-18/19-36

No other game on the casino floor gives players the chance of close to 50/50 odds on a single bet. With the red/black, evens/odds, or 1-18/19-36 bets, you’re giving yourself the chance of hitting almost half the options on the Roulette wheel – the 0 and 00 aren’t counted – which gives you a pretty nice chance of winning. Granted, that means that the payout ratio is lower (1:1, bet $10 win $10) but by the numbers, it’s one of the safest and best roulette bets you can go with when playing the wheel.

Payouts for this can be surprisingly rewarding if you’re willing to risk more money on each bet. Take Ashley Revell – he once bet $136,000 on a single spin of the Roulette wheel. If throwing down that sum of money on a single bet doesn’t sound impressive or at least make you sweat a little, know that the sum was the entirety of Revell’s life savings and the entire event was televised. So if Revell won, he’d double his money and evoke envy and admiration from his spectators; if he lost, he’d lose everything and earn deserved pity.

Revell laid all his loot on red, and the wheel delivered – the ball landed on the red 7, and Revell walked away having doubled his life savings. However, we can’t honestly recommend betting your entire net worth on a single spin of the wheel since we wouldn’t exactly characterize that as successfully minimizing risk.

Roulette Bet 2 : Columns

What Is The Safest Bet In Roulette

If a 1:1 payout isn’t exciting enough to motivate you to lay down some chips, you can slightly up the ante and the payout to 2:1 by betting on the columns. By going with this second best roulette bet, you’re bringing your option of numbers down to a little under a third, but betting on a column still covers a significant chunk of the felt while doubling your winnings – a $10 bet will win you $20.

Columns don’t contain consecutive numbers – for example, the first column has 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, and 31 – and the number of red and black numbers differs between each column, a fact that we’ll cover in a moment. And remember, the 0 and 00 aren’t included in any of the columns because they’re special and too good for all the other numbers.

Roulette Bet 3: Black and third column/Red and second column

Best Roulette Bets

This third best roulette bet was specifically designed for people who like to hedge their roulette bets, or at least attempt to. The Roulette board is an interesting creature and when studied thoroughly, it may help you score big bucks. On the third column of the board, there are 8 red numbers and 4 black, whereas the second column is reversed, holding 8 black numbers and 4 red.

You, the savvy Roulette player, can take advantage of this layout for some slow but steady gains. If you bet on the red-rich third column and double your bet on the black ($10 on the third column, $20 on the black), you give yourself a solid chance of breaking even or making gains.

Here’s why: the third column contains more red numbers than any other column, giving yourself a good chunk of red on the wheel. At the same time, you’re betting on black, which gives you a little under half the wheel. The third column has a payout of 2:1, and the black has a payout of 1:1, so your column bet should be half the black bet to break even. This is because if a red number shows up on the third column, you win double your bet, but lose your black bet, which is the same amount – it’s considered a push, since you’re even. It’s the same when a black number comes up: you win your black bet, but lose your column bet. But when a black number on the third column comes up, you pull ahead. This system of betting minimizes the risk while giving you a solid chance of steadily padding your bankroll.

The same thing applies to the combination bet of red and the second column – red gives you just under half the numbers, and the second column has 8 black numbers. Be patient, and this roulette bet could help you earn big gains.

Roulette Bet 4: Straight up

If you care way more about the payout than you do about minimizing risk, your best option is to go with the straight roulette bet. This involves betting on a single number and hoping that Lady Luck is on your side. The risk is extremely high, but the payout – 35:1, $350 for a $10 bet – is pretty freakin’ sweet. Plus, this is the only category that includes the 0 and 00 tiles.

If you’ve got a bankroll of $350, you could technically go through 35 $10 bets in a row before you’re out of the game. And if you win once, you’re up $350. The chances of you hitting the exact number you’re going for is about 2.7% or 1 in 37, but what’s a big reward without bigger risk?

What Is The Best Bet In Roulette

Roulette Bet 5 : Split bet

If you want to go big but the straight bet gives you the cold sweats, you can still go for a higher reward with a lower risk and choose the split bet instead. This involves placing chips on any two numbers that are next to one another on the felt. This can be either horizontal or vertical placement, and to place the bet you put a chip on the line between the two numbers.

The payout of 17 to 1 is lower than the straight bet, but the chances of hitting your numbers are 1 in 18, which is way better than the 1 in 37 the straight roulette bet offers.

The 5 best roulette bets summarized:

1. Red/Black, Evens/Odds, 1-18/19-36
2. Columns
3. Black and third column/Red and second column
4. Straight up
5. Split bet

Put these winning roulette bets to the test

So you’ve read and digested all the best roulette online real money bets we’ve laid out here, and now you want to put them to the test. Great! Try these roulette bets at our online casino real money usa and see how they work out for you, or come up with your own winning combination bets and let us know how it goes!