So, what will it be: Red, or Black? It’s the most popular bet roulette has to offer, a simple choice between two colours – and you get paid out at even money when you win. There are dozens of other roulette bets you can make at Bodog Casino, but there’s a very good chance someone’s playing Red/Black right now as you read this.
That someone could be you. We’re proud to offer the best online roulette game selection in the business here at Bodog; we also have real-time roulette on our Live Dealer menu, which now features more games than ever. And as always, we give you the immaculate Customer Service that has helped make Bodog the No. 1 online casino in Canada and across the Americas.
Roulette is one of the most fun games you’ll find at Bodog Casino, but to make it even more enjoyable, we’re pleased to present our comprehensive roulette betting guide for beginner and intermediate players. Roulette bets fall into two general categories: “inside” and “outside” bets. In this guide, we’re turning our attention to the outside of the roulette layout, where you’ll find Red/Black and all those other tasty wagers.
Roulette Bets: Understanding the Basics
Before we can master these outside bets, we need to know what makes them tick. Roulette is a game of pure chance, where every wager has the same chance of winning from spin to spin; don’t fall for the “Gambler’s Fallacy” that leads people to believe future outcomes are weighted to balance out past results.
Consider our Red/Black bet for example. There are 18 numbers on the roulette wheel marked in Red and 18 in Black, then a single-zero (“0”) marked in green, and if you’re playing American Roulette, a second double-zero (“00”) in green. That’s a total of 37 numbered spaces on the European wheel, and 38 on the American wheel.
In theory, if you play live roulette at a bricks-and-mortar casino, there’s a small chance the wheel they’re using will be flawed enough to produce non-random results that you can track and take advantage of. But these biased wheels are increasingly rare these days, and online roulette uses random number generators (RNG) to ensure fairness.
This means the roulette odds are going to stay the same no matter what. If you place a bet on Red, your chances of winning are 18 out of 37 for European Roulette, and 18 out of 38 for American Roulette. If Black comes up instead, the chances of Red winning the next spin are exactly the same. It doesn’t matter how many times in a row the roulette ball lands on one colour or the other. Unlike with blackjack, most casinos are happy to let you keep track of past roulette spins, in case you want to try one of those infamous roulette betting systems like the Martingale (Spoiler alert: They don’t work).
Your payout on Red/Black also remains the same from spin to spin: even money. You will always have 18 ways to win this bet no matter which wheel you’re using; for European Roulette, your odds of winning are 18-of-37, for a house edge of 2.70%, and for American Roulette, your odds are 18-of-38 for a house edge of 5.26%. Always keep these numbers in mind when you play roulette at Bodog Casino.
Roulette Inside and Outside Bets: Key Differences
Did we mention there are other roulette bets you can make besides Red/Black? When you look at that familiar green felt on the table, you’ll see those 36 numbers on the inside of the layout, plus the 0 and maybe the 00 – even a 000 if you’re playing Triple-Zero Roulette in Las Vegas, and you’re willing to pay the 7.69% house edge that the third zero creates. Everything surrounding those numbers on the layout is an outside bet.
The easiest outside bets to make in roulette are the even-money bets like Red/Black. The other two bets that pay out at 1-1 are Even/Odd and Low/High (1 to 18/19 to 36). If you want to be really fancy, you can use the original French names for these three even-money bets: rouge ou noir, pair ou impair, and manque ou passe. Each has its own betting space on the outside of the layout, which we’ll cover in a moment.
The remaining outside bets in roulette pay out at 2-1, because they all contain 12 of the 36 non-zero numbers on the wheel. These bets include the Column bets (1st, 2nd and 3rd Columns) and the Dozen bets (1st, 2nd and 3rd Dozens). Column and Dozen bets are generally played less often than even-money bets because the 2-1 payout makes it harder to do the math for those betting systems people love to use – but you should definitely give both the Columns and the Dozens a try if you want to enjoy roulette to the fullest.
Best Outside Bets in Roulette: Where to Place Your Chips
How you bet might not matter when it comes to the house edges in roulette, but you still have to make sure you place your desired bet correctly, and put your chips in their proper spot on the layout. This is easier to do when you play online roulette at Bodog, since you’re not under the same social pressure to act quickly as you are at the live casino. The game software will also help you by highlighting and identifying each betting area as you hover your cursor over it.
If you look at the bottom section of the layout, you’ll see the designated spaces for all the even-money bets, in the following order from left to right:
– Low (1-18)
– Even
– Red
– Black
– Odd
– High (19-36)
Directly above those even-money bets, and below the inside portion of the layout, are the three Dozen bets: 1st Dozen (1st 12), 2nd Dozen (2nd 12), and 3rd Dozen (3rd 12). Finally, looking to the far right of the layout, we have the three betting spaces for the Columns. These are often marked simply as “2 to 1” to show how much they pay when you win; it’s assumed you’re aware that you’re taking the numbers in the specific column on the layout that corresponds to your betting space.
Why Outside Bets Are a Smart Choice
The biggest standard payout in roulette is the 35-1 payout you get for a winning Straight bet, also known as a Single. It’s the most popular of the inside bets, made famous by movies like Casablanca (22 Black) and Run Lola Run (20 Black). But it’s also the hardest bet to win in roulette, hitting just once in 37 or 38 spins on average.
Outside bets may give you much smaller payouts than Straight bets, but they also cash in much more frequently: 12 times as often for Columns/Dozens, and 18 times as often for Red/Black, Odd/Even, and Low/High. While the house edge for inside and outside bets might be the same, the increased chance of winning even a small prize will help you extend your playing sessions at Bodog, and get the most value out of your entertainment dollar.
Because roulette is a game of pure chance, we highly recommend you play for entertainment purposes when you play at Bodog Casino. And if you happen to be a beginner player, it’s a good idea to minimize your overall risk while you’re learning the ropes. Focus on those outside bets like Red/Black at first; include just a sprinkling of those high-risk, high-reward bets like the Straight, and of course, never gamble with money you can’t afford to lose.
Even if you’re an experienced casino player, you might want to consider making outside bets the larger part of your roulette diet. You might not be able to flip the house edge in your favour, but you can put together an “optimal” strategy from an entertainment perspective by tailoring the frequency of your bets to match the payouts they provide. That means taking the even-money bets most often, then the 2-1 bets, then all the different inside bets, with the Straight saved for special occasions.
We also like to stress the importance of bankroll management when you play roulette at Bodog Casino. Placing more outside bets becomes even more critical if you’re betting larger percentages of your bankroll with each spin; without those small-but-frequent victories, you risk busting out before you’ve had a chance to enjoy yourself. Choose a bet size that fits your bankroll and your desired session length, stick with it whether you’re running hot, cold or tepid, and let the roulette ball skitter where it may.
Play Online Roulette at Bodog
There is one way you can boost your Return to Player (RTP) when you’re at the roulette table: Play at Bodog Casino. We offer the most generous bonus packages in the casino world, from our 100% Casino Welcome Bonus (make it 150% when you use crypto) to our 200% Refer a Friend Bonus. Keep an eye on our Promotions page at Bodog to see what other bonuses you can start collecting right now.
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More traditional methods like credit cards and Interac e-Transfer (the latter works much better these days) are still welcome at Bodog, but if you want the smoothest transactions possible with the smallest fees – and without sacrificing security – crypto is the way to go. Check out our Bitcoin Video Tutorial series to find out how easy it is to bet with crypto at Bodog.
To make your roulette experience run even more smoothly, we’re always upgrading our lineup of games here at Bodog Casino, giving you the most up-to-date software available for online roulette and the most reliable connections possible to our Live Dealer rooms. Our family of roulette games has reached double digits with the arrival of Vulcano Roulette, which adds random multipliers as a bonus feature to give you even more ways of winning. Watch out as well for Flash Roulette in the new Gold Tier Games section on our Live Dealer menu.
The incredible people at our Customer Service desk might be the biggest reason we’re the No. 1 online casino in Canada. If you’re having any issues or you’ve got any questions, they’re on the case for you 24/7. You can also browse our comprehensive FAQ and Help guides with a quick search on the topic of your choice, from the rules of roulette to the finer details of crypto betting. And as always, we have Canadian writers on the scene here at Bodog – a Canadian brand – giving you the expert skinny on all the games we have on our casino floor. There’s so much more to talk about when it comes to roulette, but now that you’ve made it this far, you’ve got everything you need to start playing like a boss at Bodog Casino. Make sure to read our companion guide on those inside bets to get the full roulette story, and if you haven’t already, sign up for your free Bodog account, then make your first deposit, claim your Welcome Bonus, and start playing roulette for real money at Bodog – Canada’s leading online casino for 25 years and counting.