No Zero Roulette

One of the games that we really miss, is the No Zero Roulette game that Betfair Casino used to have in it’s No Zero Lounge. You can still play No Zero Blackjack and No Zero Baccarat, I believe, but the roulette game (which didn’t have a zero pocket, and didn’t have a house edge) was quietly retired in 2013.

Actually Betfair called this game “Zero Roulette” and claimed it paid out true odds on every spin.

To be fair, this game was a bit of a puzzle to us anyway. It seemed a bit counter intuitive for a casino to offer a roulette game with no zero pocket (after all, this is where the casino gets its House Edge.)

Betfair Casino

They don’t offer No Zero Roulette anymore, but they have the next best thing: French Roulette with La Partage Rule.

Think about it- if you play a red or black bet, or any even money payout bet for that matter, you are paid out 1:1 or even money on the bet. You might think that your odds are 50/50, but in fact you have a 18/37 or 48.6% chance of winning. That’s because in a normal European roulette wheel, there is a single zero pocket. If the ball drops in there, you lose the bet. If you like playing a roulette system like the Martingale, a no zero wheel is advantageous because you are less likely to experience long runs of losses.

American wheels have 2 zero pockets, so the house edge is even bigger.

So how did Betfair make any money with the no zero roulette wheel? Well, maybe they didn’t, and that’s why they discontinued it.

We have searched high and low for an alternative, but haven’t been able to find one.

Why Did Betfair Offer a No Zero Roulette Wheel?

We suspect that this was a promotional tool to get people trying their casino- a bit like a loss leader in a Supermarket. Once they had enticed players on the no zero game, they could try and persuade them to play on the standard European wheels. The single zero wheel had quite a few restrictions on it in terms of maximum betting amounts, and wagering restrictions (any play on zero roulette didn’t count towards your play-through requirements for the bonus offers). They had a maximum win amount allowed on the game, as well, so you could win but you couldn’t win huge.

Even so, we miss this game! It was a great way of illustrating exactly what the house edge is on standard roulette, and why it’s there.

So What’s the next best thing?

OK- so you can’t get the house edge down to zero anymore, so what’s the next best thing? Well, you can minimise the house edge by playing European Roulette instead of American Roulette. That will get you down to 2.6% (versus 5.2%).

And if you play French Roulette at Betfair, they play La Partage Rule, which means you get half of your bet back on an even money bet (like odd/even for example) if the ball drops in to the zero pocket. You can find most varieties in our roulette games section.

It’s not No Zero Roulette, but it’s the next best thing. This gets you down to a house edge of around 1.3%, which is comparable to many variants of blackjack- a game that is widely known to have the best odds in the casino.

Play French Roulette at Betfair