European Roulette is identical to French Roulette except for the announcements and labels on the tableau. Nevertheless, in addition to the American game, most people especially remember the French variant. In the article about the French game, I went into more detail about the French names and the La Partage rule, here I would like to focus more on the game details such as payout rates, betting options and questions about profit expectations.
The most important rules of the European variant
In contrast to the American variant with double zero, European Roulette is played with 37 numbers and only one zero. To distinguish it from French Roulette, the croupiers’ prompts, the announcements and the names on the gaming table are in English.
First the croupier will start the game round with the request “Make your Bets Please”. Then the players can place one or more bets on the table within the limits of the table. Simple chances like Red / Black, Odd / Even or 1-18 / 19-36 (high / low) or multiple chances like Column bet, Dozen bet, Line bet, The first Three, The are possible first four, corner bet, square bet or quarter bet, street bet, split bet and straight up bet.
While the croupier is already putting the ball into play in the bowl (one also says “he turns or throws”), further bets can be placed until the croupier declares the betting phase to have ended with “No more Bets please”. Chips placed or moved after this will no longer be accepted. After the ball has dropped into one of the 37 compartments, all lost bets are drawn in by the croupier and the bets won are paid out according to the following table.
| bet | cover | payout | winning percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight up bet | 1 number | 35: 1 | 2.7% |
| Split bet | 2 numbers | 17: 1 | 5.4% |
| Street bet, First Three | 3 numbers | 11: 1 | 8.1% |
| Corner, First Four | 4 numbers | 8: 1 | 10.8% |
| Line bet | 6 numbers | 5: 1 | 16.2% |
| Dozen, Column | 12 numbers | 2: 1 | 32.4% |
| Simple chances | 18 numbers | 1: 1 | 48.6% |
The roulette wheel with 37 numbers
The European version of the roulette wheel is identical to the French one. In contrast to this, American roulette has not simply added a double zero anywhere, the distribution of the numbers is completely different and is somewhat more orderly than in the European / French kettle.
The numbers on the wheel are alternately red and black. For this purpose, the distribution of the numbers is chosen in such a way that as few of the other simple opportunities as high / low and even / odd as possible are directly adjacent to one another.
The calculation of the profit expectation
Wherever something is written about roulette, you can also read something about the profit expectation or the house edge of the casino. The house edge of the European and French game is only 2.7%, the average expected profit for the players, however, is only 97.3% (100% minus house edge). This profit expectation can be improved to 98.35% by betting simple chances at a table with the La Partage rule.
If you look at the coverage and payout rates, then the individual bets seem to have a different risk-reward ratio. But that is a fallacy. For all betting options you can calculate the respective expected profit and each time comes to -2.7%
(Coverage / Totals) * Payout Rate + ((Totals – Coverage) / Totals) * (-1)
Coverage is the number of numbers that make up a bet, total number of the respective roulette variant (37 for the French and European or 38 for the American variant) and the payout rate is the number of tokens that you can win for each bet placed , Using the line bet as an example with a coverage of 6 numbers and a payout of 5: 1, the formula looks like this:
(6/37 * 5) + ((37-6) / 37) * -1)
The left side of the term describes the chance of winning (6 numbers out of 37) combined with the respective payout (5: 1). On the right side, the chance of not winning is calculated (everyone else except the 6 numbers), in which case you would lose your bet (-1).
Where should you play the European variant?
Basically everywhere. This game should not be missing in any online casino and if it did, I would seriously consider why I should choose this casino. If you would like to play this variant, however, I should make sure that the casino offers the La Partage rule for at least some games, in which you have a better chance of winning when betting on simple chances – the CasinoClub is best suited for this , since here the Half of all games are equipped with this rule. The question of whether you should play European Roulette does not even arise to me. It is the most popular game variant and because of the lowest house edge it is also the most attractive.