One of the most popular table games at online casinos across the world is roulette. There are lots of different versions of the game, and perhaps the most popular is European Roulette.

Whether you are playing at a live dealer casino or with a virtual wheel, the rules of European roulette will remain the same. As the game itself originated in France, European roulette is considered one of the oldest and most traditional styles of play, aside from the French table itself. 

At a European roulette table you would expect to find the traditional wheel, which contains 36 alternating red and black sections, which are seemingly randomly numbered, however there is a structure, the numbers have been laid out in such a way as to create the best spread of odd and even number, and split up the high and low numbers. 

You will also notice one single green space which is marked as 0. Around the outside of the wheel, there are 6 or 12 paddles which are little raised canoe-shaped nodules that are designed to deflect the ball even more and make the spin as random as possible. 

If you are playing at a live dealer table, the wheel will be a real wheel operated by a professional croupier and streamed live into your gameplay window. If you are playing virtual roulette, then the wheel is a computer-generated graphic, and the winning number is picked by a random number generator as soon as the wheel is set in motion for each game. 

You will notice that the second feature of the table is the betting mat. At online casinos, whether you are playing at a live dealer table or a virtual table, the mat will appear as an interactive image so that players can place their bets by dragging and dropping chips to the desired location on the mat. 

The betting mat should be the same in every casino for this particular version of the game, other variations of roulette will contain slight differences in the mat layout, but fundamentally wherever you play European Roulette, you should find the mat looks the same. 

On the betting mat, the numbers will appear in lines of three, in numerical order, not in the order they appear on the wheel. These are called streets, and you can place a bet on a street of three numbers as part of the play. 

You will notice at one end of the mat there is the single zero and at the other end the first, second, and third column markers. Under the table of numbers, you will find the first, second and third dozen boxes and space to bet on red, black, odd or even. Finally, you will find the low and high betting spaces. 

Before the wheel is spun, either by the live dealer or the computer simulation you will be asked to place your bets, and you do this by dragging the chips you want onto the betting mat. Once the game starts, you cannot move your bet. 

So, now you have a good knowledge of the table and can answer the question, What is European roulette? You can start to play. There are two different categories of bet that you will find consistently across all casinos, so you need to learn how to bet, the odds and what the best strategy is to win. 

Firstly you have inside and outside bets. The odds for inside bets are better than outside bets, but these are less likely to be winning bets as they are much more specific. Let’s look at the bets in more detail.

There are seven inside bets, and the odds change depending on the number of numbers involved. 

Straight: This is the best return on your wager for the whole game; however, you are picking the one single number that will come up, so the chances are low. Odds: 2.7% Payout: 35:1

Split: Place your chip between two adjacent numbers. Odds: 5.4% Payout: 17:1

Street: Any line of three numbers on the betting mat. Odds: 8.1% Payout: 11.1

Trio: Any three numbers that include the zero. Odds: 8.1% Payout: 11.1

Corner: Sometimes called square, a bet on any four adjoining numbers. Odds: 10.8% Payout 8.1

Basket: Bet on 0,1,2 and 3 specifically. Odds: 10.8% Payout 8.1

Six Line: Betting on any two streets next to each other. Odds: 16.2% Payout 5.1

The second group of bets are outside bets. Many of these are considered coin toss bets or 50/50 being a simple case of win or lose. However, because there is a green zero which doesn’t form part of the outside bet, the odds are weighted in favour of the table. 

The 50/50 style bets are Red, Black, Odd, Even, Low (1-18) and High (19-36). All of these bets carry actual odds of 48.6%, and the payout is 1:1. The remaining outside bets are those placed on a dozen. These carry odds of 32.4% and have a payout of 2:1. 

You can bet on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd dozen. At most European roulette casinos you will find that there are also special bets, sometimes referred to as announced bets, but these are something to learn as you go along by watching other people. 

If you like to play safe, then outside bets will likely see you win more often than outside bets, but you can learn to play a variety of combinations to give yourself a better chance. A single chip or a stack of chips can form your bet, and there will be house maximum amounts for each of the bet types described above. 

These should be clearly displayed at the table no matter what type of roulette you are playing. Beating a roulette table is not considered possible, but there are certain combinations of bets that will give you a better chance of winning big.