UK's Best Online Roulette Sites

How to Play Online Roulette for Real Money

Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting started with a real money roulette site.

Compare Top Roulette Casinos

First, you’ll need to find somewhere to play. Our regularly-updated list of the top roulette sites makes it a breeze to compare the most trustworthy UK roulette casinos and their welcome bonuses. Our stringent review process covers everything from the number of roulette tables available to the quality of their mobile optimisation, so you can rest assured we’ve left no stone unturned whilst compiling our leaderboards.

Sign Up

Once you’ve found the best roulette site for you, our link will take you straight to the registration page so you can get started. You’ll need to provide your contact details and submit information to verify your identity and be sure to opt-in for your welcome bonus.

Deposit

You’ll need to deposit some money into your account to claim your welcome bonus and play real money roulette games –– unless you’ve opted for a site with a no deposit bonus, of course. The top roulette sites accept a range of convenient banking options, including debit cards, PayPal, Boku, and Paysafecard, so making deposits is a piece of cake. Your bonus will typically be credited to your account automatically when you make your first qualifying deposit.

Choose Your Game

Ready to play? Browse the available roulette tables at your chosen casino to find the right roulette game for you. Whether you’re looking for European or American roulette, low stakes tables, or high stakes roulette, you’ll definitely find something that matches your tastes. 

Play!

Deposits are almost always instant, so you can start playing online roulette in next to no time. Place your chips on the table and set the wheel in motion. If you strike lucky, your winnings will be automatically credited to your account. You’ll then have a few options: bet again, use your winnings on other casino games or withdraw your winnings.

Beginner’s Guide to Online Roulette

Roulette became popular soon after its invention in the late 1600s. The game’s creation is credited to Blaise Pascal, with roulette being one of the results of his study on probability.

Hundreds of years on, roulette players are still developing strategies in an attempt to swing the odds in their favour. However, ultimately, roulette is a game of chance, which means these roulette strategies do little other than help with bankroll management. 

In reality, winning at roulette comes down to basic understanding and, most importantly, luck! Of course, we can’t help you get the rub of the green, but we’ve got everything you need to know to get started when it comes to playing online roulette.

Roulette Variants

As with most online casino games, there are a few different roulette variations you can choose from. Here’s a quick breakdown of the most popular roulette games, available at a range of the top online casinos, and how they work.

European Roulette

European roulette is the most common variation of the game, and its wheel has 37 pockets. These pockets are numbered 0 to 36. The zero pocket is coloured green, while red and black alternate across the rest of the wheel. As the European game lacks a double zero pocket, as is seen with the American variant, European roulette has a more favourable house edge of 2.7%. 

American Roulette

American roulette is pretty similar to its European counterpart, but the additional 00 pocket means these wheels have 38 pockets in total. This extra pocket increases the potential outcomes for each spin, giving the house a higher edge than the European game at 5.26%.

French Roulette

French roulette is also similar to the European version, but the felt has a slightly different layout. The other main difference is that French roulette features a number of different betting options, including the ‘La Partage’ rule that gives players half their money back when they’ve placed even-money bets and the ball lands on zero. As French roulette has the same number of pockets as European roulette, the house edge on non-even money bets is 2.70%, but this can be halved to 1.35% after an instance of the La Partage rule coming into play. After losing the even-money bet when the ball lands on zero, players can stick their original stake ‘en prison’––French for ‘in prison––and spin again on the same bet. If the bet wins, the player recoups their original stake in full. The stake is forfeited entirely, however, if the second spin loses, too.  

Mini Roulette

This roulette variation isn’t quite as popular as regular roulette, but you’ll still find it at a selection of the top online roulette sites. The key difference here is that there are only 13 pockets on the wheel, making for simpler gameplay.

Multi-Wheel Roulette

This is the roulette game for you if you’re looking to take the game a step––or several steps––further. With some games giving you the chance to have eight wheels in motion at once, you have the opportunity to build your bankroll at a much faster rate. Of course, you could just as easily lose at the same pace. You can usually control the number of wheels in play, meaning you can tailor multi-wheel roulette games to your own preferences.

Bets and Odds

Bets on a roulette table fall into one of two categories: inside bets and outside bets. Which category your bet falls into will depend on where you place your chips on the table. Let’s take a look at the different types of roulette bets.

Inside Bets

• Straight up – This involves placing your chips on a single number.
• Split – This is a bet on two numbers, and you should put your chips on the line between the two numbers.
• Street – You’re splitting your bet between three numbers, and you’ll place chips on the border that surrounds the numbers in question.
• Corner – You’re betting that the ball will land on one of four numbers, placing your roulette chips on the corner where all numbers meet.
• Five – This bet is reserved for American roulette, because it involves the double zero. You’re putting your money on the ball landing on either the 0, 00, 1, 2, or 3.
• Line – This is a split bet between six numbers in a line on the roulette felt. You’ll need to place your chips on the outside border of the sequence of six numbers.

Outside Bets

• Column – Numbers on the roulette felt are split into columns, and you’re placing your money on the ball landing on one of the numbers within a particular column. Put your chips on either the ‘1st row’, ‘2nd row’, or ‘3rd row’ box.
• Dozen – You’re putting money on the roulette ball landing on a number in one of the sequences of a dozen on the wheel.
• Odd/Even – This is a bet that the ball will land in either an odd or even-numbered pocket on the wheel. Simply place your chips in the corresponding box. Neither the 0 nor 00 are included in this type of bet.
• Low/High – A low/high bet puts money on the ball landing in either pockets 1 to 18, or 19 to 36.
• Red/Black – This bet puts money on the colour of the pocket the ball will land in. All numbers—except zeros—are either red or black.

The odds of roulette are the same, no matter if you’re playing online or in a land-based casino, but the variation you choose does make a difference. While European roulette has a house edge of 2.7%, for American roulette it’s 5.26%, meaning the casino has a slightly greater advantage over the player. If you’re already familiar with return-to-player (RTP) rates attributed to video and progressive jackpot slots, house edge can be equated to RTP by taking it away from 100%. For example, with European roulette’s house edge of 2.7%, the equivalent RTP value would be 97.3%.

Let’s take a look at the probability of you picking the winning number, and what the roulette payout is for each variant.

Try Out Live Dealer Roulette

Online roulette largely works exactly as it does in brick-and-mortar casinos, but it’s traditionally been tough to replicate the immersive atmosphere you’d find in a land-based establishment. With live casino and live dealer roulette, you can now bring the true casino experience much closer to home. Not only can you interact directly with your croupier, but you can also socialise with other players at the table through text-based messaging. Another key difference is that traditional online roulette games use random number generator (RNG) technology to determine where the ball lands, while your live dealer will be using a real roulette wheel to find the outcome.

As with typical online roulette games, live roulette comes in an array of varieties, with studios worldwide streaming live tables around the clock. Some of the industry’s best developers, including Evolution Gaming, Playtech, and NetEnt, work tirelessly to bring you authentic roulette experiences, tactile interfaces, and smooth streams. If you’re keen to play with a live dealer, check out our list of the very best live roulette casino sites available in May 2021.

Play Roulette on Mobile

At TopRatedCasinos, we think mobile-optimised websites are the absolute minimum when it comes to offering a top online casino experience. That mentality extends to the games on offer, but you’ll be pleased to know that just about every leading roulette title is compatible with Android and iOS mobile devices. 

The benefit of this is that you won’t need to sacrifice any quality when you take your roulette play from a desktop to your smartphone, and you can be sure that the game will run smoothly and with easy touchscreen controls. If your online casino of choice offers a native app, we’d highly recommend downloading it to play roulette on your phone or tablet. Not only will the app offer a more tailored mobile experience, but push notifications will keep you up to date with the latest offers and game releases.

Best Roulette Software Developers

Roulette is such a staple of the casino industry that you’ll find it represented in countless developer’s game libraries. To help you cut through the noise, here’s a quick selection of our favourite providers.

Playtech

Want to play live dealer roulette? Playtech has the answer. This software house has a roulette option for everyone, with classic versions alongside both premium and branded roulette games. You can even play 3D roulette at Playtech casinos.

Microgaming

You won’t find many unusual roulette wheels with Microgaming, but you are guaranteed a high-quality round of classic roulette. Whether you choose American, European, or multiplayer roulette, you’ll get to enjoy a seamless game with slick visuals and easy controls.

NetEnt

NetEnt doesn’t have the biggest selection of roulette games, but it’s the software provider to choose if you want the best mobile roulette games. Thanks to its NetEnt Touch range, the quality of its desktop games is augmented with mobile-specific controls and layouts optimised for the small screen, making playing on mobile as exciting and hassle-free as it is on your computer.

Grab a Bonus for Online Roulette

You’ll find a welcome bonus at most online casinos, so here’s a quick breakdown of the most common ones you can apply to the roulette tables.

Matched Deposits

Matched deposits are one of the most common welcome bonuses, and they’re often the most enticing. This bonus sees the online casino match your initial deposit by a certain percentage and up to a set value. For example, your chosen casino site may offer ‘100% up to £50’, meaning you’ll get an extra £50 to play with when you deposit £50. If you deposit more than that, you’ll still only get £50 in bonus funds, as that’s the maximum specified by the offer.

No Deposit Roulette Bonus

No deposit bonuses offer the perfect opportunity to try your luck at roulette with no strings attached. While you won’t lose a penny if you use a no deposit bonus to play roulette, you could win real cash if you do make a lucky bet.

Roulette Strategies

As is the case with the majority of casino games, roulette mainly comes down to chance. This means there’s no roulette strategy that can tell you how to win at roulette. There are, however, several roulette betting strategies that can help with bankroll management, and these fall into two categories: negative progression and positive progression betting. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular roulette strategies and how they work.

Martingale

The Martingale betting system is a well-known negative progression system that relies on players placing bets on even-money bets and doubling bets after every loss. The theory is that, no matter how many rounds you’ve lost before, the first win will recuperate all of your losses. Of course, roulette is a game of chance so it’s possible that you could run through your bankroll or hit the table limit before you land a winning bet. Let’s take a look at an example of the Martingale strategy in action:

Paroli

This is a positive progression betting system based on players doubling bets after each winning bet. Once again, the even-money bets (odd/even, red/black, low/high) are recommended here, and players should return to their starting bet every time they lose. While Paroli betting can be a more effective way of managing your bankroll than random betting, it shouldn’t be seen as any guarantee of winning money. Roulette results are completely random, meaning it’s possible that you could find yourself in a win-lose-win-lose pattern, running through your bankroll very quickly. Let’s take a look at an example of the Paroli betting system in action:

Fibonacci

Considered one of the safest roulette strategies, the Fibonacci strategy is based on the sequence of the same name. In essence, numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are the sum of the two previous numbers:

On even-money bets––which include odd/even, 1-18/19-36, and black/red––the Fibonacci sequence can be used to guide your stakes. If your starting stake is £5, for example, and it loses, your second bet will also be £5. If that loses, your third bet will be £10, and so on. If you win on the second or third bet, you’ll break even. If you win on the first spin, simply start again from the beginning. Alternatively, you should drop back by two numbers in the sequence if you win later in the chain. By following this method of moving back by two numbers with each win, you can eventually return to the start of the sequence with a profit. 

It’s important to remember that this strategy remains entirely reliant on good fortune in order to work in reality –– you can always find yourself on a protracted, winless run that wipes your bankroll dry. As with other roulette strategies, the Fibonacci system is first and foremost a bankroll management tool.

The house edge of 5.26% on American roulette and 2.7% on European roulette is, of course, static and can’t be influenced by your strategy. It’s also important to factor in the maximum stakes on the roulette game in question, as you may find the Fibonacci strategy hits a wall when you can’t progress in the sequence past the max wager.