Roulette Odds and Payouts - Top-Rated Casinos UK 2022

European Roulette

The two most popular roulette games are the European and American variants. These versions share many similarities, but the key difference is that European roulette wheels have 37 pockets compared to American roulette’s 38. 

In the European game, all the pockets are numbered from 1 to 36, with the 37th pocket known as the single zero. This single zero pocket is usually coloured green and belongs to the house, meaning that if the ball lands in it when the wheel stops, all bets are lost. It’s in this rule that all roulette casinos derive their house edge – more on this later. 

Whether you’re playing live roulette or standard RNG games, there are many different bets that can be placed at the wheel, each of them generating their own odds and payout structures. Standard European roulette games offer players 13 different betting options. 

Six of these options are known as even money bets. These are the bets that have the highest probability of occurring, consisting of options such as red/black, odd/even, or high/low. In European games, players have a 48.6% chance of winning these bets; without the single zero pocket, the odds would be exactly 50%. European roulette pays out 1:1 on even money bets, so a successful £2 wager on black would see players receive £4 back in total. 

If you’re looking to make slightly more adventurous betting calls, there are seven other options on the table. Increasing roulette payouts to 2:1 are dozen and column bets, where players wager that the ball will land on a specific third of the wheel. The probability of these bets coming off is 32.4%. 

Lengthening the odds to 5:1 are six line bets, where players select two sets of three adjacent numbers at a probability of 16.2%. Next in line are corner bets which select a combination of four numbers, street bets which select three, and split bets which select two. These betting options pay out at 8:1, 11:1, and 17:1 respectively. 

Finally, the ballsy roulette players among us might chance their arm at a straight up bet – a wager on a single number on the wheel. These bets have a 2.7% chance of coming off and the odds are set at 35:1. In the table below, we’ve broken down the full range of European roulette bets, along with their payout rates and probability percentages.

American Roulette

Games of roulette originated in Europe but migrated across the Atlantic some time in the 18th century. American roulette wheels consist of exactly the same 37 pockets as its European cousin – 18 red, 18 black, and one green zero – but throws in an additional zero pocket, creating what’s known as a double zero. This extra pocket increases the chances of the ball ending up on a zero, which in turn increases the casino’s house edge. So, of the two variants, European players have a better chance of winning from spin to spin.

The structures of American roulette’s odds and payouts are largely the same as the European version, but the probabilities of each bet coming off are slightly reduced. For all even money bets, for example, probability falls to 46.37%, while the payout rates stay the same at 1:1. American roulette players can also make use of dozen, column, line, corner, street, split and straight up bets – again, all of these share the same payouts, but offer lower probabilities of occurring. 

As well as influencing the house edge, the presence of the double zero pocket also introduces an additional betting option: the five bet. Five bets are the only wager that allow players to bet that the ball will land in either the single or double zero pockets, and they also extend to include pockets one, two and three. So, overall, players are making a call that the ball will land in one of those five pockets.

We’ve included another table below that details all of the available call bets in American roulette, along with their odds and payout rates. 

French Roulette

We have the creative energies of Blaise Pascal to thank for  roulette’s invention. Pascal was a French mathematician who, in an attempt to build a perpetual motion machine, inadvertently created the world’s first roulette prototype in the middle of the 17th century. Naturally, France has its own set of roulette rules. 

French roulette is played on a European wheel with 37 pockets in total, including a single zero. Odds and payouts are the same as in European roulette, but the French version incorporates two additional rules that are favourable to players. 

The first is La Partage: if the ball lands in the zero pocket, 50% of all even money bets will be returned to the players who wagered them, while the remaining 50% goes to the house. La Partage gives the French variant the lowest house edge of all roulette games, which is reduced to 1.35% on even money bets. 

The second rule is En Prison, although this is rarely included in online games of French roulette. Like La Partage, the En Prison rule kicks in when even money bets are in play and the ball lands in the zero pocket. At this point, the croupier will mark the even money bets, imprisoning them for the next spin; if the wager comes good on this next spin, players will receive their wagers back in full. 

Here’s a third table of French roulette odds and payouts, along with the adjusted probability rates: 

Bet Types Explained

There are two types of bets that a player can place. These are called ‘inside bets’ and ‘outside bets’, relative to where your chips are placed on the table.

Inside Bets

Straight Up

In this bet, you are betting on one number. Use your chip(s) to cover your selected number. This bet provides you with the longest shot of winning and the best payout.

Split

A bet on two adjoining numbers, made by placing your chip(s) on the line between two numbers.

Street

With a street bet, you are betting on all three numbers in a horizontal line, such as 34, 35 and 36. To make this bet, place your chip(s) on the outside line on either end of the ‘street’.

Corner

A corner bet is a bet on four numbers. As the name suggests, you place your chip(s) on the corner shared by all four numbers to make this bet.

Line

This is a bet on a combination of six numbers. Just think of it as two ‘streets’ in one bet. Place your chip(s) on the outside line where the two ‘streets’ meet.

Five

A bet on five numbers – the double zero, zero, one two, and three on an American roulette table, made by placing your chip(s) on the intersection of the zero and one, or double zero and three.

Outside Bets

High or Low

Place your chip(s) in the designated area to bet on the numbers 1 through 18 for ‘Low’, and 19 through 36 for ‘High’.

Red or Black

This bet is a bet on the ball landing in either a red or black pocket. Place your chip(s) in the table’s designated area for each of these wagers.

Odd or Even

You are betting on the number being either even on odd. Place your chip(s) in the designated area for these bets.

Dozen

Dozen bets allow you to bet on a third of the 36 numbers available. You can place your chip(s) in the designated area for 1 to 12, 13 to 24, and 25 to 36.

Column

Similar to the ‘dozen’, a column bet allow you to bet on a third of the 36 numbers available, but according to their column on the table, instead of their numerical order.

House Edge

The house edge is the advantage that the casino has over players. On the European roulette wheel, the house edge is 2.7% and on the American roulette wheel, the house edge is 5.26%. This explains why the tables above show that the odds a casino pays out on a wager are always slightly less than the odds of winning. While it is inevitable that many players will experience fortunate winning streaks, this minor advantage is enough to allow the casino to make profit in the long-term, ensuring that the house almost always wins eventually.

To learn how house edge is calculated, let’s take a look at a ‘red/black’ bet on a European table, one of the most popular bets in online roulette. A common misconception is that you have a 50% chance of winning this bet, as there are two outcomes. The zero on the table means that there are actually three: red, black or neither. The presence of this extra pocket reduces the odds by increasing the number of possible outcomes.

Only 18 of 37 numbers result in a win, so your chances are calculated as:

18/37 = 0.486

As the house also wins if the ball lands on 0, the odds for the casino are:

19/37 = 0.513

The house edge is the difference between these two figures:

0.513 – 0.486 = 0.027

So the house edge is 2.7% for both European and French roulette. These variants provide players with the overall best chance of winning, because there’s only one zero pocket, and therefore a smaller number of possible outcomes. For French roulette players, those making even money bets reduce the house edge to just 1.35% thanks to La Partage. 

As American roulette has two zeros on the table, there are a greater number of possible outcomes, and consequently a lower probability of winning. The house edge for American Roulette is therefore 5.26%.

Now that we’ve covered the statistical probabilities and odds of all the bets you can place on both American roulette and European roulette, it’s time for you to put this knowledge into action and devise your online roulette strategy.

Remember, no matter how lucky you’re feeling, the house edge leans in favour of the casino – so while some strategies may seem to initially work, they usually fail in the long run. Most importantly, don’t forget to have fun. Good luck!

Roulette Strategies

Although roulette odds and payouts will always remain the same according to the rules of the variant you’re playing, the game has attracted several betting strategies over the years. Following these systems is in no way a guarantee of winning, but can provide some helpful guidance on how to structure wagers and approach the wheel at real money gambling sites. We’ve briefly explained the most famous betting strategies below. 

Martingale

The Martingale system is designed to eventually recoup all lost bets from one win. It can only be applied to roulette players making even money bets, since there’s a high chance that the bet will come good at some point. 

Players following Martingale will double their bets after each loss, meaning that a win will recover the amount of all previous losses. Although the logic appears sound, this strategy can run into trouble in two ways: first, there’s only a certainty of winning if players have infinite wealth; second, if there are betting limits at the table, players may hit the bet limit cap before they’ve recovered their losses. Players following the Martingale system would therefore be better off finding a high stakes roulette game.   

Labouchère

The Labouchère system begins with players writing down a sequence of numbers, such as one, two, and three. Each bet that’s placed should be equal to the sum of the first and last numbers in the sequence, so in the example given here, this would be £4 (1 + 3). If the wager is successful, players remove the numbers from the sequence; if the wager is lost, players add the staked amount to the end of the sequence. If players are ever left with just one number in their sequence, they simply bet that amount. 

The idea here is that Labouchère disciples can make a profit by winning fewer bets than they lose at gambling sites. Like Martingale, this system only works on even money propositions, and players’ bankrolls will suffer badly if they fall into a losing streak. 

D’Alembert

Rather than increasing bets after each loss – as is the case with Martingale – the D’Alembert system does the opposite. Let’s say you agreed on a base unit stake of £1: if that bet lost, you’d increase the next bet by one unit, so £2; if that bet loses, it rises to £3, and so on. By contrast, any winning bets decrease the unit, so a win at £3 would lead to a wager at £2 on the next spin of the wheel. 

The theory behind D’Alembert’s system is that it gives players greater control over the influence of streaks in the short-term. With the Martingale system, things can spiral out of control quickly following a losing streak when the stakes are raised, but D’Alembert better mitigates against this risk by only increasing the bet amount by one unit following a loss. Again, this system only applies to even money wagers. 

Fibonacci

The Fibonacci sequence is a set of numbers that regularly appears throughout nature. Naturally, it’s been appropriated to form a roulette betting strategy, which players can take to their online casino. The Fibonacci sequence begins with zero and one, and continually adds the two adjacent numbers together to reach the sum of the next number, as follows:

0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 and so on

At the roulette wheel, these numbers are substituted for betting units. Players don’t have to start at one, so long as they follow the correct sequence from wherever they begin. Fibonacci players increase their wager when they lose – which means moving forward along the sequence – and move back two steps when they win. 

Fibonacci is another system only to be used on even money bets. It’s known for being a conservative betting strategy but, as ever, this always comes down to the luck of the spin.