The Best Roulette Strategies: Safe Roulette Bets

Roulette is a gambling standard, and you’d be hard pushed to enter a casino anywhere in the world and not hear the familiar rattle of a ball bouncing around the roulette wheel.

When you’re on a losing streak, it can feel as though roulette is all luck, and there’s nothing you can do to win.

Is roulette a game of chance? Yes — but there are actually some great roulette systems that can help give you an edge on the wheel. Let us guide you through some of the best roulette strategies to turn your chips into wins!

Martingale Roulette System

This is perhaps the best known roulette strategy and the most common system used by roulette players. The idea at its core is a simple one: every time you lose, you up your bets to recoup your previous loss. Once you’ve won it back, you lower your bet back to its original value and start betting again.

The Martingale roulette strategy is most commonly used on outside bets with even odds, specifically odd and even, red and black, and low and high bets. This is because the even chances mean you can theoretically recover your loss quickly in a single turn. While this is the most common bet placement on the roulette table, it’s not absolute — you can bet however you like.

What makes the Martingale system one of the most popular roulette strategies is the short turnaround for winning. With even odds, by betting high you can make small wins more frequently.

It’s a great roulette technique, although it can be risky — if you end up on a losing streak, rather than doubling your wins, you’re doubling your losses.

Reverse Martingale

As the name suggests, this is essentially the Martingale roulette strategy flipped on its head. Rather than increasing your bets after a loss, you increase your bets after a win. This system of roulette is also known as Paroli or a positive progression strategy.

The premise for this betting system of roulette is that players can take advantage of a potential winning streak and maximise their wins. At the same time, this provides them some security if they fall back into a losing streak.

While the standard Martingale system can be used on any inside or outside bet on the roulette table, the reverse Martingale is slightly different. This is because to foster a winning streak means you need to bet on repeaters: that is betting on spaces that will be statistically more likely to come up.

As a result, inside bets are off the table. Stick to outside bets with better odds, and like with the Martingale system, you’ll have smaller wins, but more frequently.

Oscar’s Grind

Another common roulette betting tactic that a lot of players find useful, partly due to its simplicity, is Oscar’s grind. It’s an even chance strategy, meaning it focuses on spaces with odds of 1 to 1, including outside bets on odd and even, red and black, and low and high spaces.

Oscar’s grind is progressional, following set betting that you move through as you’re winning. When you win a bet, increase your bet by one. If you lose, you keep your bet the same. You keep your bet the same until you win. If you’re still down in profit, raise the bet by one unit. Keep raising the bet until it becomes profitable. You then revert back to your initial bet.

Like the Martingale, Oscar’s grind is about going after small wins. It’s a low risk grind (hence the name), which takes time to earn any real profit from. But for beginner players who are risk-averse, it’s one of the best strategies for roulette out there.

Fibonacci

The Fibonacci roulette system is a much safer strategy for roulette than other popular methods, such as the Martingale. It also carries a fairly high chance of winning too. It is based on the famous Fibonacci sequence — something you might not have heard since your maths lessons at school.

The Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers that increase by adding the two previous numbers together: 1+1=2, and 2+1=3, and 3+2=5, and so on. For example:

1 > 1 > 2 > 3 > 5 > 8 > 13 > 21 > 34 > 55 > 89 > 144 > 233 > 377 > 610

So how does this apply to roulette strategy? When it comes to your betting system, simply begin by betting one unit, then move up through the Fibonacci sequence until you win a bet. At first glance, this might seem like a reckless roulette betting strategy. If you’re on a losing streak, you’re simply increasing your losses, surely?

Not so. You simply continue betting until you win. So for example, say you lost your first six bets, but you won on the seventh, betting 13. You now decrease your bet by two places, reverting back to betting five. You then carry on betting until you win, again moving back two places in the sequence. And remember, this is a red and black strategy, meaning you can use it on odd and even, red and black, or high and low spaces.

Of course, like any betting strategy for roulette, losing streaks can happen and they can be damaging. But when compared with higher risk betting systems like the Martingale, it’s one of the better strategies for roulette out there.

Reverse Fibonacci

Just as the Martingale has the reverse Martingale, so too does the Fibonacci strategy, and it works in a similar way too.

Rather than moving forward in the sequence after a loss, you only move forward after a win. When you lose, you move back two places. This system of roulette is based on maximising on a winning streak and chasing a profit. Of course, this really only works if you actually are on a winning streak. The reverse Fibonacci is the high risk version of the original, and you should bear this in mind when you’re finding the best roulette tactics for you.

James Bond roulette strategy

Finally, no list of roulette methods would be complete without mentioning 007 himself, James Bond. This strategy is fairly simple (which is maybe why James Bond likes it as his attention is diverted by sly villains and seductive women).

The James Bond system of roulette works by covering over half of the table. For example, if you have £200, you would split it three ways around the roulette table:

• £10 on zero

• £50 on a line bet (six numbers)

• £140 on high (19-36)

If the ball lands on zero, you receive £160 with odds of 17 to 1. If it hits a number from your line bet, you’ll net £100 based on their odds of 5 to 1. And finally, if a high number comes up, you net a profit of £80.

This is a good system for short-term roulette play, but shouldn’t be used with progressive bets. Once you win, we recommend counting your blessings and trying a different roulette method. And finally, remember that the James Bond technique of roulette betting only works on European roulette, so bear this in mind when playing.