Roulette Basic Strategy

When playing roulette for real money, understanding the roulette table is the most crucial aspect. The roulette game table usually has a green felt with a roulette wheel and a betting grid. The betting grid is the most important section at the roulette table, as this is where you put your chips to place your bets. Roulette is a casino title that relies on luck, and when playing with the basic roulette strategy, you can boost your winning chances and make some profit. Therefore, this page contains some helpful casino roulette tips and tricks you can employ to gain an edge over the house.

Casino roulette versions

There are two primary renditions of roulette you can play in the best roulette casinos online. These include RNG and live roulette, both being equally popular with casino players. So, with RNG-style roulette, gameplay is run by the random number generator (RNG) algorithm to spin the roulette and determine round results. Gameplay only starts after placing your bets and clicking the ‘Spin’ button. This means you can play at your pace, taking time to study the result patterns to make more accurate bets as part of an efficient roulette basic strategy to enjoy more success.

On the other hand, live roulette has the same table features as its RNG counterpart, except that players will enjoy a more realistic gambling experience, like in actual casino destinations like Vegas or Macau. In that regard, live roulette games feature a human croupier who spins the roulette wheel and drops the white ball on the rotating wheel. However, in some versions of roulette live games, an auto wheel is used. 

In this game version, players usually have about 20-30 seconds to place their bet (s), unlike in RNG-style verticals, where gameplay begins when you hit the appropriate button. These are the primary versions of roulette games, and they form the basis on which we’ll base roulette basic strategies and roulette tips and tricks on this page.

The best roulette betting strategies

Before joining a roulette table for real money gameplay, you should note that this game is based on chance and luck. As such, there’s no foolproof basic roulette strategy or betting system that can guarantee 100% success. Roulette betting strategies can only take you so far, which is why it’s crucial to employ some roulette tricks and tips to go along. You’ll find many pages online about the best roulette betting strategies, but they all can be grouped into two:

  • Non-progressive strategies: Although these betting systems come with some level of risk, they involve you betting with the same amount of wager after each round, regardless of the outcome (win or loss). Above all, non-progressive betting strategies are easy to learn and understand and are suitable for shorter gambling sessions.
  • Progressive strategies: As its name suggests, these are strategies that involve a player increasing or decreasing the bet amount after each round, whether after you win or lose. Progressive betting systems usually follow a betting pattern and carry a somewhat higher risk since a higher bankroll is often required. As such, these systems are not ideal for low rollers or beginners but for roulette experts. Some of the popular strategies in this category are Fibonacci, Martingale, Labouchere, and D’Alembert.

The type of bets you prefer, bankroll balance, and roulette game type typically determine the basic roulette strategy you can use.

Roulette betting tips and tricks

One of the best strategies for playing roulette is just to play with profit and minimise the loss percentages. It sounds a little tricky as one moment can be in favour of the player, and the next moment could lead in the wrong direction. Still, with some handy tips and tricks for playing roulette online, you can try to increase your profit margin and your odds of success. These are the basic roulette strategy tips and tricks that can prove beneficial during gameplay.

Play roulette games with high RTPs

You’ll find three popular variations of roulette online: European, American, and French Roulette. Based on RTP (return to player) percentages, European (ER) and French Roulette have a higher value, 97.30%, compared to 94.74% in American Roulette (AR).

This difference stems from the number of zero pockets and the total number of pockets in the ER and AR wheels, where the former has 37 slots (single zero), and the latter has 38 pockets (‘0′ and ’00’ with the double zero being the additional pocket on the AR wheel). This disparity implies that European Roulette offers players slightly higher chances of winning than American Roulette due to the extra slot.

So, picking ER is the smartest choice when playing for real money since you can expect to win more, $97.30, compared to $94.74 in AR after wagering $100 in the long haul. This naturally becomes the first step in ensuring you enjoy a higher chance of success when playing roulette.

Consider outside bets in roulette

Generally, roulette is well-liked among gamblers since it offers many bet options that can be placed simultaneously in one round, given that your bankroll allows this. These bet options are divided into Inside and Outside bets (red/black, odd/even, high/low, column, and dozen). The latter group of bets have a higher chance of winning than inside bets, which is why we err on their side.

However, Outside bets offer lower payouts vis-à-vis Inside bets. Therefore, when you place more outside bets, you increase your chances of winning while enjoying somewhat frequent but lower payouts. 

With this basic roulette strategy, you can collect some good profits. Nevertheless, don’t wager on both options, like red and black or odd and even in the same round. You’ll not make any profits this way. The trick is to spread your bets across the table, even including some inside bets to maximise your odds of winning.

Exploit casino roulette bonuses

For gamblers who enjoy playing with casino bonuses and promotions, claiming these rewards can be advantageous if your online roulette casino offers them. Bonuses are basically free funds which you can convert into withdrawable funds through wagering. So, if you’re lucky enough to meet the set wagering requirements, you can earn some money without digging into your real casino balance. 

However, when claiming these bonuses, ensure the online casino allows roulette games to contribute towards wagering. In most cases, roulette games will have a lower contribution rate (5%-10%), which increases the playthrough requirements, making it challenging to meet. Also, consider this factor when wagering the bonuses.

Play bonus roulette games

There are many interpretations of roulette games online, and the most popular ones currently are titles that have some bonus features or multipliers. Multipliers are more common in live roulette games, but RNG-style titles like Lucky Roulette also incorporate multipliers. Playing this genre of roulette titles will not give you a higher chance of winning; however, the multipliers involved, which can exceed even 2000x, offer a massive payout potential. Since the goal is to get a fine profit margin, bonus roulette games are highly recommended.

These multipliers typically replace the standard payouts (which are usually lower, say, 29:1 on straight-up bets, to accommodate these multipliers), giving you increased payouts. For example, a 200x multiplier, which pays 199:1, will return incredibly more than what you’ll get when you win on a straight-up bet without a multiplier. 

However, please note that these multipliers are generally applied to single numbers on the roulette table, and only straight-up bets qualify for these multiplied winnings. Still, you can always mix up your bet options to raise your chances of winning.

Study hit patterns from roulette statistics

This is one of the niftiest tips and tricks that expert gamblers use to play roulette. In most roulette games, you’ll find results of the last rounds (up to 500 in some titles). In addition to these outcomes, some titles provide advanced statistics, showing the percentage hit of specific numbers, including the hot and cold numbers. You can use this data to advance your strategy by trying to identify any patterns that may help you gain an edge over the house. 

Predictive analysis will help you more accurately forecast the results of the following rounds, allowing you to make more educated bets rather than betting randomly, hence boosting your winning odds. Although this roulette basic strategy may not yield success in each round, it places you in a better position to win. Nevertheless, this basic roulette strategy may be deemed inefficient due to the randomness of outcomes in roulette. Therefore, monitoring trends may not be the best idea.  

Other roulette tips to consider

The above basic roulette strategies will definitely help you play roulette with a different approach aimed at maximising your returns and minimising losses. In addition to that, below, we offer some casino roulette tips and tricks that may elevate your gameplay experience.

  • Know when to quit: It has been discovered that after continuously winning, it can be a hard situation for the player to step away from the roulette table. Online roulette strategy statistics show that winning will end in losing if played continuously. As such, we advise players to practice the discipline of stopping roulette gameplay while they’re still ahead because, eventually, losing streaks will come, and they may end up losing everything.
  • Practice roulette for free: If a practice mode is available, it is wise to start from there and learn the basic steps of the game. This way, you learn the gameplay rules, types of bets, including called/announced bets, and other game aspects while practising various betting strategies for free. Afterwards, you can launch into real money gameplay with confidence and a better chance of success.
  • Play at legitimate online roulette casinos: Safe and secure online casinos provide a better gambling experience due to their streamlined services, fair games, and secure withdrawals. This way, you’ll not fall victim to scam sites that fail to pay winnings. Also, complaints or issues in reliable and regulated platforms are usually resolved quickly due to their reputation.
  • Set betting limits/budgets: We advise players to set a personal gambling budget per session to avoid overspending, which may lead to debts or other irresponsible gambling habits. This way, you can manage your finances adequately. Some casinos online also offer tools that may help you set and stick to these limits.

Summary to roulette basic strategy

Our basic roulette strategy guide highlights some of the top tactics you can employ to have the upper hand when playing live or online roulette. The most crucial strategy is choosing a roulette game with a high RTP, and from there, you can build up on other mentioned sets of tactics like taking advantage of roulette-incorporated bonuses, spreading your wagers across the betting grid, studying the data from the game’s statistics to discern any patterns that may give you an edge. Also, opting for roulette games featuring multipliers can be an intelligent way forward due to the increased payouts. Nevertheless, we’d like to reiterate that these basic roulette strategies and tips will only help you raise your odds of success and not guarantee winnings.