Learn Roulette Strategy
It is well known that roulette is mostly a game of chance and that there is no strategy that will beat the house’s edge. However, this does not mean that certain betting and gameplay strategies don’t make more sense than others, depending on what the player in question is looking to achieve.
There are many ways of playing roulette, with betting patterns being crucial in how a roulette session may look. Some players prefer to bet big to try to win fast or go home, while others want to stick around for a long time and have some fun for an extended period.
On this page, we take a look at some common roulette strategies and betting patterns and try to explain what players can expect from each of them and how different betting strategies are likely to turn out in the long run.
Outside Bets Explained
Many roulette players, especially novices, are frightened by the relatively long odds of getting a win on inside bets. Instead, they prefer to make outside bets such as red/black, odd/even, thirds or halves. These bets offer reduced risks and reduced reward, with minimal variance.
If you decide you want to bet on these low odds and high chance bets, we recommend making significantly bigger bets than you would if you were making inside bets. An outside bet such as red/black will land you a profit nearly half of the time, so there is really not too much point making very small bets. Instead, try to make a bigger bet and get lucky a few times in a row.
When it comes to outside bets, these are commonly used as a part of a betting strategy such as Martingale or Reverse Martingale. With these strategies, players will increase or decrease their bets depending on the outcome of their spins, until they finally show a profit.
Even players who don’t use progressive betting systems will still often increase the value of their outside bets when winning or losing to try to either win back their losses or keep the winning streak alive. Our recommendation is not to increase bets when losing as this can lead to poor judgment and instead keep the bets steady until you hit a winning streak and ride it out.
Inside Bets: Large Risk for Large Profit
Experienced players who are less risk-averse often prefer to make inside bets. Betting on single numbers is the best chance to win big on any given spin and many players prefer this type of betting instead of outside betting.
A straight up inside bet will pay 35:1 meaning you will get a profit of 35 betting units every time you hit that number. To reduce their risk and variance, players often bet on multiple numbers at the same time. These can be your favourite number or simply one part of the roulette wheel. The preset series on the roulette wheel actually allow you to quickly make multiple inside bets at once.
Differences between Inside and Outside Betting
In the long run, every roulette bet you make will show exactly the same result. The house maintains a small edge (about 2.7% in European Roulette) and there is really no way around this. However, that does not mean you cannot win on any given session and depending on which strategy you choose, you may be more or less likely to do so.
Outside betting is a risk-averse and low variance betting strategy. If you are betting on red/black or odd/even all night, you will only need your numbers to land slightly more frequently than the other group in order to maintain a steady profit. This is quite likely to happen and with a strategy like this, you may go home a winner close to 50% of the time.
If you want to make your outside betting strategy a bit riskier and give it a potential for a bigger profit, you will want to occasionally increase your bets, preferably when you are on a solid winning streak.
Inside betting, on the other hand, is the more risky route. Players who use this type of strategy often have losing sessions as well as massive winning sessions. Increasing bets at some point to try and make a winning run even more profitable is yet another way to make more money but also increase your risks.
The basic difference between these two common strategies is that one offers small rewards with little risks while the other offers massive awards but also a huge risk. Which strategy you will choose should depend on your bankroll and your willingness to lose a certain amount of money, which should never be more than you can really afford.
Progressive Betting Systems
We already mentioned progressive betting systems and it is worth noting that these are some of the most popular betting strategies in the game of roulette. The popular Martingale System is easily the most common such strategy, which follows a very simple principle. This strategy has a player double his outside bet every time it is a loser and come back to the initial stake whenever they win. This way, the bet always shows an overall profit every time it does land.
While there are many supporters of progressive betting on roulette out there, it is very important to note that such strategies carry tremendous risk. Martingale and all other progressive betting systems lead to many small winning sessions, often dozens in a row. The problem with such strategies is that eventually, you may run into a losing session in which you lose your entire bankroll since the amount of money required for every subsequent bets becomes progressively larger.
If you are looking to play roulette for fun, we recommend against using progressive systems. These systems are dull and mundane and don’t offer a chance of large profit. On the other hand, if you are trying to make a quick buck with a limited bankroll, give it a shot but don’t be too surprised if things go down the hill at some point.