The martingale strategy roulette is one of the most well-known betting systems used in crypto gambling sites. It is used on casino games that have close to 50/50 odds of the bet winning with even odds paid out on successful bets. In roulette the Martingale strategy uses 3 outside bet options only and you can lose more bets than you win, but still walk away with a profit.
3 Bet Options
- Even (Manque) and Odd Bets (Passe)
- Black (Noir) or Red (Rouge)
- High (Pair) or Low Bets (Impair)
In this article we will walk you through how to play the Martingale strategy and also give you insights into how this strategy can help you as a crypto roulette player as well as explain situations where this strategy can also go badly wrong!
What are outside bets?
Before you start to play roulette, or even before you learn this strategy depending on where you are in your roulette learning curve, you need to understand the difference between outside bets and inside bets.
Outside bets are the betting options on the outside of the roulette betting board. You will notice the roulette betting board has 2 areas.
1. Betting area for numbers – Inside bets
2. Betting area for special bets – Outside bets
The special bets are the ‘high Vs low’, ‘red Vs black’, and ‘odd Vs even’ bets. The 2-1 options are known as ‘column bets’ or ‘dozen bets’.
European Roulette Vs American Roulette
You can use the Martingale strategy on both ‘American Roulette’ wheels or ‘European Roulette’ wheels. However, using the ‘European’ version gives you better odds of winning. As per the table below, we list the odds for the 3 outside bets used within the Martingale strategy.
Implementing the Martingale strategy
The Martingale roulette strategy involves placing wagers on 1-1 (even odds) paying bets such as odd/even or black/red. Each time you lose, you double your next wager. When you win, you reset back to your original bet.
Now that is the strategy explained in full – very easy!
Even odds pay-outs pay back your bet + an amount equal to your bet. Therefore, if you bet, 1 mBTC then you get back 2 mBTC making a 1 mBTC profit. (That’s your 1 mBTC bet + 1 mBTC winnings = 2 mBTC or 1 mBTC profit).
The basis of the Martingale strategy:
· Double your bet after each loss
· Return to the original minimum vet after a win
That means when you play the Matingale strategy, you are always looking to double your money. Obviously, the plan is to eventually win, recoup all your previous losses and be one wager in profit. In theory, this is an excellent strategy and one that many players swear by. It has some flaws, however, which we will get into below.
Sequence of the Martingale System:
· Uses just 3 outside betting options
· Set your minimum bet for the outside bets
· Double your bet after each loss
· Return to the original minimum vet after a win
· Downswings can be costly
· You need a good-sized bankroll
Will you win large amounts of money playing this strategy?
At first, you will not win enormous amounts from a single bet. Instead, when you do win, you are just winning one wager, but because you doubled your bet, you recoup any losses from prior bets and earn a small profit. Therefore, unless you repeat this strategy over a long period and get the required luck, you will not be walking away with huge profits. It could take a lot of spins to win decent money. Still, profit is profit, after all.
Martingale strategy in action
Now to explain a real-life scenario for this strategy, we will use 1 unit as your minimum bet. From the list ‘Sequence of the Martingale System’ in the above section, one of the points we made was that you need to ‘Set your minimum bet for the outside bets’.
Scenario:Player bets 1 unit as the minimum bet
As you can see from the table, the increase after each win is progressive. As long as you continue to double your bet and stay patient waiting for the winning coup, you will progressively increase your minimum bet into a profit. In this scenario, the player won 3 bets but lost 7, yet those 3 winning bets put the player +3 units in profit.
If this was you playing the Martingale strategy, and 1 unit is worth 1 mBTC, then you will already have 3 mBTC banked. However, now let’s take a look at the downside to using this strategy.
Risks of the Martingale strategy
There is the chance that you could still lose a fair whack of cash or crypto playing the Matingale strategy. There are 2 flaws to this system.
Bankroll: As you are doubling your wager after every loss, a losing streak could see you needing to wager vast sums of money
Max Bet Limits: Even if you have money to burn, you may eventually see the strategy fall over because of the roulette table’s maximum allowed bet. If your required wager exceeds max bet, the strategy has failed. For example, let’s look at a table with a ‘Max Bet’ limit of 100 units.
As you can see from this scenario, 1 bad streak of losses and the player has hit the table’s max limit and cannot double bet number 8. The player has to be 100 units and luckily won that bet in this example. And even though that bet was successful, the player is now well behind and needs a good run of wins to recoup losses from the original losing streak.
What would happen if the player lost bet number 8?
The above scenario could be much worse. If the player lost bet number 8, he/she would be in a bad place and a practically impossible place to come back from the losses mounted up. The player would now be playing a cat and mouse chase with the roulette table hoping to catch a few 100 unit bet wins in a row, which could also turn out badly if the player goes on another losing streak.
What are the chances of a losing streak playing roulette?
There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to the dreaded losing streak and the Martingale strategy. They are a mix between probability and variation which are 2 concepts that as a casino player, you should understand – especially if you are a stage where you want to implement basic strategy.
Every coup is an independent event: As with all games of chance, each outcome is totally independent of the next. For example, the probability of a ‘0’ result turning up on a European/French roulette wheel is 1 in 37. Yet, the ‘0’ can turn up 2 times or even 3 times in a row. In short, each spin is ‘in the moment’ and despite the many probabilities out there, no one can ever predict the next number.
Percentage chances of losing consecutively: Despite the fact every coup is independent, there are still some mathematicians out there that have calculated the odds of losing or winning 50/50 bets.
Now in roulette, you have to remember that because there is a ‘0’ not associated with any of the outside bets, the odds of winning are slightly lower as per the table in ‘European Roulette Vs American Roulette’ section which describes European roulette bets as 48.6% and American roulette as 47.4%.
As a result of this, mathematicians came up with the following percentages for consecutive losses or wins. Below the table shows the chances of the same ‘even odds’ result appearing over the course of 1 to 20 spins. It shows that losing or winning 7 consecutive spins (as per a our scenario above where the player hits the table’s max bet) has a 0.65% chance of happening.
Alternative roulette strategies
There are alternatives to the Martingale strategy that are a little less risky. We won’t go into detail just yet, but we have some strategies that we will cover here in mBitcasino. As soon as our roulette experts cover the roulette strategy in full, we will add links here so you can navigate to them and expand your roulette knowledge!
Practise the Martingale strategy roulette
Practising the Martingale strategy is very easy. In fact, you can do it with a coin by choosing heads or tails while using other coins as your casino chips to keep doubling your bet. You will soon get a feel for it as all you need to do it double your bet until you win and the return to your original bet.
When you are ready you can then head over to the roulette tables online at mBitcasino. Most roulette players use the Martingale system alongside their inside bets. It’s like a side bet for them, while you can also hit the roulette tables and play the Matingale strategy at any bitcoin casino. When you play roulette, it is totally up to you how you place your bets.
On mBitcasino you can try 3 different ways to play roulette:
- Add the Paroli Roulette Strategy to Your Game!
- A Fun Guide to the Fibonacci Roulette Strategy!
- The Simplicity of the Dalembert Roulette Strategy