What is the Martingale Roulette Strategy?

The Martingale roulette strategy is the most popular betting strategy for roulette players and arguably among the most popular for all gamblers. The core of the Martingale roulette strategy is to double your previous bet after losing a bet. After a win, you should revert to your initial bet size.

As this roulette strategy focuses on increasing bets after losing results, it falls under the category of negative progression betting systems. With this in mind, the main goal of the Martingale betting system is to quickly recoup previous losses and help you get back even and on the right track. Like other betting strategies, the Martingale system is tailored for even-money roulette bets, such as red/black, odd/even, and high/low.

The Martingale roulette betting strategy is very easy to follow, as it doesn’t require any complex math or calculation. With that in mind, we’ve prepared a helpful table that illustrates how the Martingale roulette strategy works in practice:

Bet Amount	Bet Outcome	Net Profit
$5	Loss	-$5
$10	Loss	-$15
$20	Loss	-$35
$40	Loss	-$75
$80	Win	$5

As you can see from above, the Martingale roulette system is a very effective strategy for recouping your losses. With a single win, you can negate previous losses and even end up with a small profit. While it isn’t a very usable system for capitalizing on hot streaks, it helps you negate the damage of losing streaks.

With that in mind, the main downside of the Martingale system is that it is a very risky betting strategy, as your bets can quickly increase beyond your bankroll. As the essence of the system is to double after every loss, there’s always a possibility of draining your bankroll before landing a winning spin.

Moreover, a prolonged losing streak could also cause you to hit the game’s maximum betting limit. Let’s say a roulette table has a $10 minimum and $1,000 maximum limit. A prolonged losing streak could mean your bets would progress from $10 to $20, $40, $80, $160, $320, and $640. In this common scenario, you would reach the maximum limit after seven consecutive losses. And, since you wouldn’t be able to increase your bets any further, recovering your losses would become very difficult.

The Martingale roulette strategy has its antithesis system, called the Paroli system. The Paroli roulette strategy works oppositely to the Martingale, as it is a positive progression system that aims to capitalize on winning streaks and enable you to build your bankroll quicker. With the Paroli roulette strategy, you would double your bet after a win and keep your wager the same after a loss.