The Martingale Strategy

The secrets of the Martingale system and why it is a people's favourite

Recently, we spoke about some useful roulette strategy options a player can deploy when it comes to playing a game of Roulette. Today we want to delve a bit deeper into the Martingale System or just the Martingale in general as most people call it. We will cover the reasons why the Martingale system and the Reverse Martingale are as popular as they are, what benefits they provide to the player gambling and a few other interesting facts about casino gambling in general. Let’s get to it!

The Martingale strategy in Roulette

Anyone who wants to gamble at a Roulette table should be well aware of the ins and outs of this betting strategy, however we are going to elaborate the pros and cons of both of these Roulette strategies and how to use them properly. The Martingale system and the idea behind it is very easy to comprehend. Double your wager after every loss, making it easier for you to recover your losses once you win. Not only is this a decent way of dealing with potential losing streaks, but also a relatively transparent approach to betting for you to enjoy the thrill of Roulette whilst also maintaining a great chance at making some profit. The Martingale strategy has proven itself to be one of the most popular and useful strategies, be it for online casinos or their real-world counterparts. The only limiting factors might be a player's willingness when it comes to doubling their wager all the time, their bankroll or the table limit of course. The Martingale is ideally used for so-called outside bets, bets on numbers 1-18 or 19-36, bets on red, black and even or odd. Wagers placed on side bets using the Martingale strategy is thus considered one of the safe options with low risk-reward payouts. So let’s take a look at an example here.

Say you are betting an even amount of money on each of these side bets, a typical line of progression would be as follows; 2 - 4 - 8 - 16 - 32 etc.

So simply put, you play Roulette in the manner you usually would go about, with the exception of doubling up your bet every time you lose. Should you win however, then you continue playing whilst wagering the same amount until you lose again. Once that happens just double your bet again. Now the goal behind the Martingale is to recoup all the previous losses whilst also gaining a small profit playing Roulette.

In order for this to work however here are some pointers you should be looking out for when playing Roulette, be it on an American Roulette table or other variants:

Firstly you want to make sure that the Roulette table you are playing on provides the option of small min and large max bet sizes. This is due to the nature of the Martingale strategy, for if you eventually incur a losing streak but reach the table limit, you can no longer double up the bet to make up for the previous losses in the next payout, and thus diminish your bankroll rather quickly. Another point is thus checking the rules and betting amounts each table provides, as well as what kind of Roulette table it is, be it American Roulette, European Roulette or French Roulette. Reason for this is the 0 and 00 in American Roulette for example, which would not be accounted for in the way you bet via the Martingale System and are part of what’s known as the house edge.

This is also brings us to a small point we'd like to make when it comes to judging the quality of an online gambling platform. The easier it is to access a particular table's rules and the more granular bets can be made, the higher the game's quality overall. Which usually also incurs benefits when it comes to gameplay, production values and reliability of the Roulette games on offer.

The Anti-Martingale / Reverse Martingale Strategy and proper use of Roulette Strategies

The anti-Martingale or Reverse Martingale is the other kind of betting strategy we are talking about today. The point behind this betting strategy is simply the same as the Martingale, except in reverse! Instead of raising your bets when you lose, you increase them when you win and in turn decrease your bets when you lose. The idea is to capitalize on what’s referred to as hot streaks and cutting your losses during rough patches. The point behind these two versions of the Martingale is that they have the ability to help you recoup your losses, but also quickly deplete your bankroll if you happen to be unfortunate at the wrong point in time. We recommend these systems to be used only when you are aware of their pitfalls. The Martingale system is mainly designed to balance out medium-term losses and the longer you remain at any given Roulette table, the harsher potential swings can become. On the other hand, if you just wish to have some fun whilst not getting too in-depth with the subject matter of more complicated Roulette betting and risk calculation methods, then the Martingale strategy might just be the perfect choice.

Despite there being different kinds of strategies to be deployed at the Roulette table, the Martingale is one that can be applied to every kind of Roulette table and does not require you to play very risky with your bankroll. Speaking of bankroll, whatever strategy you wish to use when engaging in a fun game of Roulette you must always be aware to what extent gambling with any given bankroll can be considered risky or not. There is always a more risky betting strategy available, but taking all the Roulette table variances, table limits, deposit bonuses and the likes into consideration gives roulette players many different options. Therefore it is up to you as a player to make the right choice of going for a more well-known strategy and keeping an eye on your total profit, or going the more risky, but also potentially more rewarding route of the more high-stakes betting strategies out there. And while this might not always be true if you had a literally infinite bankroll there are still the betting limits and the differences in Roulette tables themselves that throw a wrench into this strategy itself.

Regardless of all this, we hope that this little elaboration of the Martingale betting strategy and understanding the issues it bears in terms of long term risk are a little bit more clear to you now.