Live Roulette

Roulette is preferred by players who love variance and a chance to win big for a relatively small wager. The payout for a straight up number hit is 35 to 1, but given the fact that You can bet all the splits, this can easily be even 200 to 1.

In this article we’ll cover everything You need to know about playing online roulette with live dealers. Below You can watch a video of live games we played at one of our favourite licensed UK casino – Vegas Paradise.

 

 

Top Live Roulette Casinos

Playing Live Online vs Live

Both live, online and land based casino play can be advantageous at times. Our goal here is to provide an objective look at live dealer roulette gameplay at live casinos, so we’ll start with the pros and cons list for that.

Live Online Roulette

Pros:

• Play from anywhere in the world, as long as You have an internet connection.
• The experience is private and You don’t have to worry that familiar faces might pop up to see You gambling.
• Placing bets is much simpler and You can utilize a re-bet button to place exactly the same bet as on the previous spin.
• Great game selection. You’ll be able to find French Roulette variations as well as some more “exotic” game types, such as the Double Ball Roulette from Evolution Gaming.

Cons:

Have to wait for winnings, as You cannot just quit the table and get a cash-out instantly. Though the top online casinos are known to pay within hours.
Most of the time, You’ll have to live with lower betting limits compared to those at brick & mortar casinos.
Even though the experience is rather real, You still are not interacting face to face. Some might see this as an advantage or the opposite, depending on personal preferences.

Brick & Mortar Roulette

Pros:

• Many casinos are often quite generous on comps and, given that You play for fairly high stakes, You can expect generous treatment in a way of free food, drinks and even hotel rooms.
• Land based casinos often offer a chance to bet more, but this is not necessarily the case at all times. Especially if we compare a small casino to a big online brand like Guts Casino.
• Instant payment. Right after You win, the cash can be in Your hand. No need to wait for the casino to approve Your documents or make that transfer. This is often the main reason why many choose not to entertain the idea of playing on the Internet.
• As real as it gets in terms of experience. Chat with the dealers and have the time of Your life. If You’re with friends and have been enjoying the comped drinks, expect a small party every time Your number hits.

Cons:

• The last one of the pros listed above could also be a con, if You went to the casino to have some peaceful playing time.
• Roulette gets very busy and placing a bet or joining a new table is often pretty much impossible. This is where live online play is miles ahead, since there’s always a seat at the table there.
• Game selection is often limited. Luckily for You, there aren’t many casinos that spread American Roulette in the UK. When playing online, You’re pretty much always able to play European or French variation both of whom offer way better odds than their American counterpart.

Top Software Providers

There is a handful of companies that offer live dealer games and this number has been growing quite steadily over the last year. That’s understandable since more and more people learn about the chance to gamble online, but with real human dealers or croupiers.

Below we’ve created an overview of the software providers that offer live casino games and are among the elite few. We’re saying this after having tested products from just about all companies in the business.

Evolution Gaming

Evolution Gaming are the current industry leaders in everything related to live dealer casino games. What sets them apart is an advanced playing platform along with the highest quality video stream quality in the business.

Though what is often overlooked is the professionalism of their staff, which makes a major difference compared to many other providers of these games. Their studios are located in Latvia and Malta with a total of more than 100 tables running throughout the day.

They’ve also mastered multiple game variations, such as double ball roulette and are one of the few to offer french roulette with live dealers. Their premiere product is Immersive Roulette that is by far the best live roulette currently on the market.

What makes it so great? The visual experience actually beats that of a brick & mortar casino, as You can control the exact viewing angle of both the croupier and the wheel during the spin.

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NetEnt

NetEnt have been at the forefront of the iGaming industry for a decade now, but their live casino products are just starting to catch up now. Though their Roulette games are somewhat up to par with competition and we would actually consider it to be their strongest product.

Typical lobby consists of a standard, VIP and automatic live roulette games. The latter actually features no dealer and is a video stream of an automatic wheel, like the one You’d see in some brick & mortar casinos.

Their studios are located in Malta and UK with dedicated tables that have croupiers speaking english with a british accent. Some of the big casinos that offer NetEnt live games, such as Leo Vegas, are also offering special tables that are promotions based.

In the past we’ve seen Koi Princess Roulette (based on the slot machine with the same name) and Fairy Tale Roulette. Native tables are currently offered for German and Dutch players with native dealers speaking these languages have been at the forefront of the iGaming industry for a decade now, but their live casino products are just starting to catch up now. Though their Roulette games are somewhat up to par with competition and we would actually consider it to be their strongest product.

Typical lobby consists of a standard, VIP and automatic live roulette games. The latter actually features no dealer and is a video stream of an automatic wheel, like the one You’d see in some brick & mortar casinos.

Their studios are located in Malta and UK with dedicated tables that have croupiers speaking english with a british accent. Some of the big casinos that offer NetEnt live casino games, such as Leo Vegas, are also offering special tables that are promotions based.

In the past we’ve seen Koi Princess Roulette (based on the slot machine with the same name) and Fairy Tale Roulette. Native tables are currently offered for German and Dutch players with native dealers speaking these languages.

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PlayTech

PlayTech Live Casinos – renowned iGaming supplier that also holds a stake in William Hill among other companies. Their casino platform is used by many of the top bookmakers in UK including Paddy Power, William Hill and Ladbrokes.

They have a very impressive selection of games with 22 roulette tables available. William Hill also have premium tables available as well as dedicated VIP sections.

Playtech are the only top tier live casino suppliers that let You choose between an Asian and European croupier. They also offer dedicated tables with Chinese speaking croupiers and higher betting limits.

They also announced a new 8,500 m2 studio built and opened in Riga, Latvia. It’s already in use as of March 2017 and features the high roller focused Grande VIP tables.

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Authentic Gaming

Authentic Gaming – a new player in the live dealer space focusing on providing a playing experience that is matching that of a brick & mortar casino. Actually Authentic Gaming roulette is streamed from a small casino located at a skiing resort in the Italian Alps.

Just like the company name suggests, the playing experience is genuine and up to par with actually playing at a B&M casino. Some very handy features in the game include “bet last 5” and “bet last 10” numbers spun. There are a couple of top tier casinos that carry Authentic Roulette and we can certainly recommend Leo Vegas as one.

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Lucky Streak

Lucky Streak is another new name in the business and has just recently been added to Leo Vegas portfolio of live roulette games. They offer a European layout single zero game variation that is presented in an HD stream of excellent quality. The company is headquartered in Israel, but the actual studious and croupiers are based in Lithuania. Similarly as with others on this list, the level of service provided by the staff is excellent. The dealers are fluent in English and Russian.

The only downside to Lucky Streak live roulette and other games is the fact that they are live 18 hours a day, meaning a break between shifts of 6 hours.

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Extreme Live Gaming

Extreme Live Gaming is headquartered out of London and was bought by Novomatic Group, which is well known for making world class slot machines such as Book Of Ra. This is their attempt at entering the live casino market by utilizing an already vast number of partners and distributing Extreme Live Gaming’s offerings to those same casinos.

Their flagship product is the Golden Ball Roulette that rewards the player with highest wagers every dozen spins. It’s up to the operator to choose this reward, but we’ve seen some bonus cash along with a chance to enter a prize draw being some of the prizes.

Another popular variations is influenced by the aforementioned slots and is known as Ra Roulette. There’s nothing particularly impressive about the variation and the addition here is simply a chance to make a side-bet predicting which symbol will be spun on the reel placed right next to the table.

ELG’s products are spreading throughout the industry and are available at several top tier casino brands. One we can recommend is Vegas Paradise, which operates on a platform developed by ProgressPlay meaning that mobile devices are also supported.

 

 

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Top Games

Immersive Roulette is a product from Evolution Gaming and offers an unmatched gaming experience. They achieve this by using multiple cameras that capture gameplay from a handful of different angles.  The player can then choose one that they find favourable and continue with it throughout the playing session. Needless to say that Immersive Roulette also offers video stream of quality that is pretty much unrivalled in the whole industry. Try it out at Leo Vegas, and see for Yourself!

Double Ball Roulette another product that is available at casinos powered by Evolution Gaming, but also at casinos powered by other providers like Ezugi. This game has a lot of appeal to those that find regular game type to be boring because of a relatively low payout potential. In Double Ball variation from Evolution Gaming, You can make as much as 1,300 to 1 should both balls land on the same number.

Native Speaking Dealers

Prefer to play with a dealer speaking other language than English? That’s possible at several casinos thanks to multilingual dealers and dedicated tables for some of the biggest live dealer casino markets out there.

Exclusive Tables

These tables are only available for clients of the casino that offers them. In general there is nothing special about them, but from time to time the host site are running some additional giveaways for players of these. The playing experience can often be a little bit more on the personal side as well, since it seems that for each exclusive table there are selected dealers that change shifts between themselves only. Below You’ll see casinos that offer exclusive live dealer roulette tables and are licensed by the UKGC.

Leo Vegas  Review & Video go here

 

Bet365

Playing For High Stakes

From all the highroller casinos listed on our site, Casumo Casino with a Roulette bet limit of £75,000 on each spin, is the most notorious for having very high betting limits on Roulette. On Vegas Paradise Casino you can bet up to £1000 on a straight up number, meaning a double split is £2,000, corner is £4,000 and so on.

Some incredible stories have been published about high stakes live roulette players who managed to win £100,000 and more in a single spin of the wheel at this casino. If You’re a player looking to wager more than just a few quid, Casumo is the place to be.

Mobile Live Roulette

When it comes to mobile live roulette, we’d consider Evolution Gaming and NetEnt to be the leaders, but Authentic Gaming also have a solid product. We’d certainly recommend using a tablet for better gaming experience, but the new iPhone or Samsung devices have gotten big and powerful enough that it won’t really be a problem to play on these either.

FAQ

Is it safe to play online?

Absolutely. As long as You choose casinos that are accredited and recommended by us, You won’t run into any issues. All casinos listed on this website are approved by the UKGC and thus have to follow close guidelines and rules implemented by the government of United Kingdom.

Though a pretty reasonable way to measure whether a site is legitimate or not is to check where it is licensed. Some of the most trusted licensing entities are located in UK, Denmark, Sweden, Gibraltar and Malta.

Others, that are usually not held to regard are Curacao, Cyprus and Costa Rica. The latter is actually not officially issuing licenses to begin with, so it’s equal to having no licensing whatsoever.

Is live dealer roulette rigged?

While we cannot comment on some unknown company located in Costa Rica, generally live dealer roulette is completely legit, given that You’ve chosen the games wisely. Any casino or software provider mentioned on this page will be a safe bet, and certainly won’t rig their games for an easy buck.

How come? Because it’s logical. These companies have market capitalisation of multiple billion and their roulette games net them a margin of between 2 to 5%, depending on the game variation. Why on earth would they risk a money printer like this for a quick few thousand quid?

How fast do I get my winnings?

This entirely depends on the casino You’ve chosen, but most live casinos we recommend pay within 48 hours of the request. This is of course given that You have already went through a KYC process and have an account in good standing.

The fastest paying casino and that have great live roulette selection is Leo Vegas. They have very flexible betting limits, thus a great appeal to low and high rolling players.

E-Wallets seem to be the best methods that You can use for quick transactions. The two that come to mind are Neteller and Skrill.

Which is the best roulette game to play?

The absolute best odds are available at French Roulette games, where even money bets have a house edge of roughly 1.35%. This is due to the so called “la partage” rule that lets You recoup half of Your wager in case of a loss. All other wagers have a house edge of 2.7%. Both NetEnt and Evolution Gaming have live roulette tables with French rule characteristics. We’ve also seen it available at William hill, which utilises live software from PlayTech.

European Roulette, apart from the even money bet rules, is equal in terms of house edge. You’ll be a underdog for 2.7% on all Your wagers, which means that the expected value for £100 worth of bets is -£2.7. This game type is the most widespread of all and is offered at all live dealer casinos and by pretty much all providers, those that You’d want to choose at least.

Are bonuses available?

You’ll see most online casinos offer welcome bonuses, but majority of these won’t really be usable for live dealer games. This is due to the fact that the margins are already very slim for table games and the casinos cannot really afford to give a portion of that away. However, what many sites do is let You wager the bonus on live games, but by only counting the wagers partially. So let’s say a £100 wager on roulette might only count as £10 wagered towards the bonus.

Tactics For Roulette

Roulette is famous for being a target to advantage players, who use various techniques and strategies to beat the game. That is what they say at least. Truth be told, Your betting patterns or anything else You do won’t change the odds around.

These will still remain -2.7% on all Your wagers when playing European and -1.35% on even money wagers, when French live roulette is played.

Hedging

Hedging is a term often used in the finance industry, when talking about protecting an investment against potential downside. While You aren’t exactly making investments playing live roulette, it’s still possible to hedge to avoid a loss on a large scale.

Good example of hedging bets in roulette would be placing wagers on all numbers on the first column straight up and then betting on the second and third columns individually.

Now You’re betting a relatively high amount of £320, but the risk is quite low. If You hit any of the numbers on the first column, You’re profiting £40 while any other number except 0 would be a small loss of £20.

Actually in this example we should also be placing a wager on 0 to avoid a catastrophic loss of it being spun and us losing the whole wager, but by now You should get the idea of hedging. It offers a chance to get that adrenaline kick from betting high, but at the same time actually risking very little in terms of expected value.

Though it’s worth pointing out that casinos love players and strategies like this, as there is very little variance in it for them. You’re unlikely to win any sizeable amount of money with this strategy and will just slowly bleed Your bankroll away.

Playing a high variance style

On the contrary of the previous example, casinos are not too fond of players who play a very high variance strategy.

It’s very common for high-rollers to place combo wagers – multiple bets on different scenarios, but with something in common as well. Let us show You an example below.

So in this screenshot below we have chosen 8 as our big number. There is a bet of £10 straight up and also the same wager on all splits around this number.

We’ve also placed some outside bets that offer a chance to win more frequently, but at drastically lower payout odds. You can see that all outside bets would also win on the number 8 for an additional payout. This is just one example on how many high stakes roulette players are playing.

Playing Responsibly & Being Safe

Playing roulette live can be a lot of fun, but it can also turn into a nightmare. Please make sure to read our guide to responsible gambling and contact a specialist in case You feel that this game is turning into something more than just a fun experience.

Also make sure to only ever deposit funds that You are fine losing, and do so at online casinos that are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.

This way You will always be protected. Note that every site that we recommend on this website is licensed and 100% compliant, but it’s possible that this can change. If You see a casino brand that provided You with a less than satisfying experience and is recommended by us, please contact us.