Do you want to play casino games for real money without using your own money? A no deposit bonus can let you do just that, and all you have to do is opening a new account. This bonus gives you a small bankroll that you can use on any game you want, and roulette is one of the best options for that. But when you select the “roulette” category, there will be dozens of variants: which one should you choose?
“Roulette variants include more than just additional bets,” says Casino Bonuses Finder Product Owner Tony Sloterman. “The right variant can make you lose less and win more often.” Below, we will talk about which roulette variants are better than others.
Main Roulette Variants and Their Features
Roulette games have a great variety, but it is possible to list them under three basic categories: European, French, and American.
- European Roulette: The closest variant to the original version of the game. It has 37 numbers and a single 0 pocket on the wheel. It does not include any side bets and additional payouts. Most of the roulette games on the market are based on this variant.
- American Roulette: There are 38 numbers on the wheel and two 0 pockets (0 and 00). It has a type of bet called “basket”, which is only available in this variant and allows you to place a wager on five numbers. It is no different from the European variant, except for this additional bet and more numbers on the wheel.
- French Roulette: Basically, the same as European roulette, but played according to special betting rules called “la partage” or “en prison”. These rules add new bets to the game, called “racetrack”, and refund half of the player’s lost money on bets that pay 1:1 (or allow the player to repeat the same bet on the next spin).
The roulette games you can find on the internet will have many different names – Lightning, Mega, Speed, Auto, Multi Wheel… you can find dozens of games created by adding “roulette” to the end of these words. Almost all of these are games using the European variant rules, the only difference being that they include a special side bet. For example, in Lightning Roulette, random numbers are selected before each spin, and if one of them is the winning number, you can win up to 500 times your stake. Whatever the name, all roulette games will use the rules of one of these basic variants.
So, Which One Is the Best Choice?
Now that we’ve narrowed down the options to three, we can start talking about which would be the better choice. The answer to this question must be determined by different factors and can be quite different for the same reason. If you’re asking which is better for fun, it’s a personal choice, but it can be said that American roulette is more enjoyable to play. French roulette can be quite complicated due to its additional rules. European roulette can feel “bland” for some players. But at the end of the day, it’s a personal preference, and you’ll just have to try all the roulette variants to decide.
But we can also answer this question according to more objective criteria: in which variant do you win more often and lose less? We can find the answer simply by taking a look at RTP rates. RTP is a value that shows how much of your investment in a casino game you can recover, and the higher the better. In this regard, the RTP odds of the basic roulette variants are:
- European Roulette: 97.30%
- American Roulette: 94.74%
- French Roulette: 98.65%
The high value of French roulette is due to its special rules, which return half the losses. American roulette has the lowest value because of the second “0” pocket on the wheel. European roulette, on the other hand, has the ideal RTP for most players and does not contain complex rules. Therefore, we can safely say that technically, the best variant is French roulette. But remember that there isn’t a huge difference: your personal preferences will also play a role in determining which option is best.
