The game of roulette was invented in France, so French roulette is the closest to the original and makes a favourite table game at casinos all over the world. With the growing popularity of online casinos, it comes as no surprise that French roulette now takes its place among the highest ranking online games. 

The French roulette wheel looks identical to the European wheel and has the same features. It has 37 sections, which differs when compared to the American wheel, as this has 38. The difference being the French roulette wheel has a single green 0 section, and on the American wheel, you would expect to see two green slots labelled as 0 and 00.

Whether you choose to play at a computer-generated virtual table or a streamed live dealer version of the game, you will find the wheel to be the same. 

Thirty-six of the sections are alternating black and red, with a distribution of numbers designed to spread the highs and lows evenly, and the odds and evens, it was never designed to run in numerical order. While it doesn’t change the odds of a bet, it offers a better spread of numbers and adds to the unpredictability of the game. 

As mentioned already in this French roulette review there is a single green slot, and this is marked as 0. This inclusion of this extra space throws the odds slightly in favour of the house and keeps that game as traditional as possible. 

Finally, on a roulette wheel, you will notice the inclusion of little canoe-shaped nodules scattered around the wheel. This could change as some casinos use six while others use twelve. This is designed to send the ball off in a random direction every time it collides with one of them. 

The game commences when the wheel is spun, and the ball is thrown into play. This is done by the croupier in live dealer games or using 3D animation in virtual games. 

In a live game, you will wait to see where the ball naturally comes to rest, whereas in virtual games a random number generator picks the winning number as soon as the game is started and the computer displays the graphics to match.

The second part of a roulette table is your betting mat. This will appear on the screen no matter what version you are playing. Being French roulette, you will see that some words appear in French. The betting mat will be interactive, so you can drag your stake onto the numbers you want to bet on. 

A betting mat will always have the main numbers arranged in lines of three, known as streets, in numerical order, with the green zero shown at one end. The other types of bet you can make will also be clearly marked, odds, evens, red, black, etc. 

Special bets or announced bets are then marked, and at a French table, these are the ones that will be written in the native tongue as opposed to being shown in English. No matter which casino you play at, the betting mat should look the same, for the version of the game that you are playing, in this case, French roulette 

So what is French roulette and how is it played? One of the reasons that roulette in all its wonderful variations remains so popular is because there are so many different ways in which you can bet on the game. Obviously, the simplest bet to place is to predict which number the ball will land on, but this also carries the highest odds and is much less likely to come up. 

The game has two distinct styles of bet that can be placed, and in many cases as already mention special or announced bets. The main bets fall into two categories of inside bets or outside bets, so let’s learn about them.

An inside bet carries trickier odds than an outside bet, but of course, you will get more return on your stake should you place a winning wager. There are seven types of inside bet that you can place, and these are made by placing your chip or chips onto the correct location on the betting mat.

Straight: Odds: 2.7% Payout: 35:1 You place your money on a single number, the odds are stacked against you, but the return is impressive. 

Split: Odds: 5.4% Payout: 17:1 - Any two numbers sat together on the betting mat

Street: Odds: 8.1% Payout: 11.1 A bet on any of the lines, or streets of three numbers running in numerical order.  (1,2,3 or 4,5,6 etc)

Trio: Odds: 8.1% Payout: 11.1 Limited to any three numbers that include zero, just a few combinations

Corner: Odds: 10.8% Payout 8.1. Chip placed on the corners of four touching numbers can be referred to as square. 

Basket: Odds: 10.8% Payout 8.1  Four numbers, specifically 0,1,2 and 3

Six Line:  Odds: 16.2% Payout 5.1 Six numbers made up of any two adjoining streets

Only two sets of odds and payouts here. Either odds of 48.6% with a payout of 1:1 or odds of 32.4% with a payout of 2:1. These are much easier to win, although over time the table normally remains ahead.

The first odds relate to 50/50 style bets of either black or red, odd or even or high and low. Because of the green section, they are not true 50/50 which is why the odds are off slightly, but the payout is the same as your stake. The second odds are the remaining bets called dozen bets. You can bet on the 1st (1-12), 2nd (13-24) or 3rd (25-36) dozen.

If you are looking for French roulette casinos online, you will find that there is a wealth of choice. It is a popular game and can be found in most casinos online, all you have to do is decide on a live dealer or virtual version of the game.