Improve Your Game With These Top Roulette Betting Strategies

Roulette is one of the most popular table games at both land-based and online casinos. While it may seem mainly like a game of luck, there are several strategies players use to increase their chances of winning. In this article, we’ll discuss the most popular roulette strategies—and then we’ll leave it to you to choose which ones work best for you.

How to Play Roulette

Before discussing the best betting strategies for playing roulette, let’s talk about the basics: how do you play?

There are two main versions of roulette: European and American. Both versions feature a wheel with narrow sections that are divided into numbers 0 to 36. The American version has an extra 0. The sections are red and black, except for the 0, which is green.

There is a dealer who spins the wheel, during which a ball spins and ultimately lands when the wheel stops spinning. Before the dealer spins, you can place bets on where you think the ball will land.

There are two basic types of bets: inside and outside. They both refer to where you’re placing the bet on the actual roulette board. Bets that are placed on numbers are called inside, while bets placed on other sections are called outside.

Inside bets include:
Straight: A bet made on a single number.
Split: A bet made on 2 adjacent numbers.
Street/Line: A bet made on 3 numbers on a single vertical line.
Corner/Square: A bet made on 4 numbers.
Double street: A bet made on 6 numbers, covering 2 adjacent vertical lines.
Trio: A 3-number bet that covers the 0 and 2 adjacent numbers.

Outside bets include:
Low or high: A bet made on a range of low or high numbers. Numbers 1-18 are low bets, while 19-36 are high bets.
Reds or blacks: A bet made that the ball will land on a red section or black section.
Evens or odds: A bet made that the ball will land on an even or odd number.
Dozens: A bet made on the first, second, or third square of 12 numbers.
Columns: A bet made on a 12-number column.

8 Popular Roulette Betting Strategies

Roulette certainly offers a lot of different types of bets, so if you're just starting, give yourself time to learn them all and decide which type of bets you prefer. Once you're familiar with how the bets work, you can start implementing betting strategies.

Below are some of the most popular roulette betting strategies for both land-based and online roulette games. 

Martingale

One of the most well-known betting strategies, the idea behind Martingale is to double your bet each time you lose a hand.

Benefit: This strategy is based on the premise that eventually, you’ll win a hand, and when you do, you’ll double your bet so that at least you’ll break even and won’t suffer a loss.
Drawback: This is a strategy for players who plan on sitting at a roulette table for a long time. Statistically, the longer you play, the bigger the house edge grows.

Grand Martingale

The Grand Martingale is a variation of the traditional strategy. This version dictates that you double your bet on a loss plus put down an extra amount equal to your original bet. This strategy requires that you have a large chunk of cash to risk.

Benefit: Potentially high payout.
Drawback: Potentially high losses. For this reason, we recommend cashing out after a particularly big win.

Reverse Martingale

Another variation of the traditional Martingale, the Reverse Martingale strategy tells you to double your bet when you win, not when you lose.

Benefit: By doubling when you win, you minimize the damage when you lose. You also don’t need so much money to put down upfront.
Drawback: You need to hit a winning streak to see a sizable return.

D’Alembert

This betting system tells players to add one unit to their stake after a losing bet and to decrease the bet by one unit after a win. It works best with bets that have close to a 50% chance of winning, like reds/blacks, odds/evens, and low/high. 

Benefit: Less risky than the Martingale strategies.
Drawback: Since the system is less risky, there is less potential for a high payout.

Fibonacci

All roulette strategies are based on math, and Fibonacci is no different. This strategy is designed for the even chance betting system, and it's based on the famous Fibonacci sequence of numbers: 1 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 5 – 8 – 13 – 21 – 34 – 55 – 89 – 144 – 233 – 377 – 610 – 987. You start with a minimum bet and every time you lose, you increase the bet by a figure in the Fibonacci sequence. If you win, you move back 2 figures and bet from there. 

Benefit: Players can make back their losses very quickly.
Drawback: If you hit a losing streak, you can lose a lot of money quickly.

Labouchere

A slightly more complicated strategy, with Labouchere you base your bets on how much you’d like to win. If you want to win $10, you create a sequence of numbers that add up to 10. For example: 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2.

For your first bet, you add the leftmost and rightmost numbers together. In the above example, it would be 4. If you win, cross out the left and right numbers, and place your next bet with the new left and right numbers. If you keep winning, repeat the process until all the numbers are crossed out, and you’ve achieved your goal of winning $10.

If you lose along the way, don’t cross out numbers from your sequence. You add the lost bet to the right side and continue betting the way you did before. In the example above, if you lose the $4 bet, add 4 to the right side of the sequence. Then add the leftmost number (2) and the rightmost number (4) together, and bet $6. The idea is to recoup your losses plus aim to win your original goal of $10.

Benefit: You can control how much you bet, and the risk is less than Martingale systems that tell you to double your bet after a loss.
Drawback: Slightly complicated. If you hit a losing streak, you need to play more to recoup your losses, and the more you play, the higher the house edge grows.

James Bond

An ideal short-term roulette strategy, the James Bond system is used for European roulette and revolves around 3 bets and 20 units. In the first spin, you bet 14 units on a number between 19 and 36. For the second spin, you wager 5 units on a number between 13 and 18, and for the third spin, you wager one unit in the single 0.

Benefit: This strategy guarantees a win about ⅔ of the time.
Drawback: If you lose ⅓ of the time, you might exceed maximum table bets quickly. You’re also more likely to lose if you use this strategy for long-term play.

All-In

All-In is not so much a strategy as it is one big risk. Some players believe that you have to bet big to win big, and if you’re one of them, this option is for you. Simply choose a number and put down your entire bankroll. For this strategy, you have to know that it’s possible to walk away with nothing.

Benefit: If you win, you win big. Just know when to walk away.
Drawback: If you lose, you’re done playing and have nothing to show for it.

Roulette Betting Strategy: Trial, Error, and a Little Luck

With so many popular roulette strategies, it might be hard to figure out which one is best for you. We recommend implementing a system of trial and error to see which strategies fit best with your playing style and bankroll, and of course, which ones yield the most wins.

Bear in mind that no one strategy will help you win all the time, since roulette is a game of luck and the house always has an edge. If you play the game knowing this, you’re much more likely to enjoy yourself.