Once upon a time, playing roulette involved putting on a nice jacket and heading out to your town’s casino, where you would be limited by the types of roulette you could play. Real life casinos typically have only one type of roulette, but with the developments in online gambling and online casinos, this is no longer a problem!
Today, you can participate in all types of roulette from the comfort of your living room, placing bets and winning big sums of money! But, where do you start? With all the variations in online roulette, you might find it difficult to decide where to spend your time and hard-earned cash.
We are here to help, though! Although there are lots of different variations in online roulette, they are all very simple and all focus on the classic game of spinning the wheel and waiting for the ball to land.
American & European Roulette
The classic game of roulette has numbers 1 to 36 and a single zero or double zero. You then have the option to bet on red or black, odd or even and a few other bets such as single-number bets.
American & European roulette are exactly the same, save for the fact that European has one zero and American roulette has two zeroes. The addition of double-zero massively increases the house’s chances of winning, though; this is something to keep in mind if you want to maximize your chances of winning.
If statistics are your thing, European Roulette gives the house a 2.70% chance of winning against a player whereas American Roulette gives the house a 5.26% chance.
French Roulette
French Roulette is a much rarer find than its European and American counterparts. It is similar to European Roulette in that it has a single zero, but French Roulette comes with some extra rules. The ‘La Partage’ rule is one of these rules where, if the ball lands on the zero, only half of the players’ bets would be forfeited. So, if you were to place £5.00 on a French Roulette table and the ball landed on zero, you would only lose £2.50.
Another rule in French Roulette is ‘En Prison’ which means that if you bet on odds or evens and the ball lands on zero, you have the opportunity to win your stake back. The croupier will place your bet ‘in prison’ (hence the name) by marking it. When the next spin comes around, you will win back your stake if your original stake wins.
These two rules place an interesting edge on the classic European Roulette game and definitely places the game in your favour when it comes to the ball landing on zero!
Multi-Ball Roulette
Multi-Ball Roulette lets you bet on a wheel with three balls at any one time! This allows you to bet on multiple numbers instead of just one, making the game a lot quicker and allowing you to maximise the usefulness your time spent on the game. The only catch is that your winnings will be split by the number of balls which are in play. So, if you place a £10.00 bet on the number 34 and you spin two balls, one of which lands on 34, you would win £185 (£350 winnings at 35:1 divided by two with the original stake added on top).
Multi-Wheel Roulette
This game allows you to bet on multiple wheels simultaneously, so you can place multiple bets independent of each other. This only really has an advantage if you don’t have much time to play but want to maximise your chances of winning. The bonus here is that your winnings are not split.
Live Dealer Roulette
Live Dealer Roulette is where the game is taking place live (who’d have guessed it?!) with a real croupier spinning the wheel in real-time. This eliminates any worries or scepticism which surrounds online gambling software.
Personally, we always recommend participating in live dealer roulette games, not just because its more trustworthy but because it’s a lot more fun! Croupiers operating live roulette tables often engage in conversation with the punters and give online roulette an extra level of depth and makes it a lot more interesting and social. It really adds a human touch to online gambling and takes away the robotic feeling of spinning a virtual ball around a virtual table all day.