The best online live roulette games in 2021
Once you know how to play roulette, it’s easy to find that the game gets a little samey, especially when you’re playing online away from the atmosphere of the casino.
Luckily, fans of roulette are spoilt for choice when it comes to playing online, with every casino offering a multitude of simulated and live online roulette options. For roulette players looking to emulate the real casino experience and get maximum entertainment from their online sessions, live online roulette is the way to go (we’ve explored the differences between the types of roulette previously, if you want to know more).
Live online roulette doesn’t just come in the classic European and American varieties. Virtual casinos offer up a variety of fun live dealer roulette variations that put a “spin” on the game we’re all used to. We’ve played all the best types of live online roulette games available across the most popular online casinos, and listed the top 5 for you here.
Why Play Live Roulette Online?
You can play roulette online in either video simulation or live environments. We’ve decided to review the best live versions of the roulette because it’s closer to the real casino experience, and because it’s a more exciting and social version of the game.
Video simulated roulette is a computer-generated version of the game that uses a randomly generated number to decide the winner of each virtual spin. Although you can play both single player and multiplayer video roulette, it just isn’t as social as live online roulette.
Live roulette is played via live stream with a real roulette wheel in a casino environment, and has a live croupier who communicates with all the players. Players can also communicate (with each other or the croupier) via the live chat function. You can find some great live dealers in online roulette, who are engaging and funny, which makes the game more entertaining than video roulette.
Play Roulette for Fun: Lightning Roulette
One of the most popular live roulette variations is the Lightning Roulette game from Evolution Gaming. This exciting roulette variation adds “lucky numbers” to the roulette board once the dealer has started spinning the wheel and declared “no more bets”. The lucky numbers are given a multiplier between 50x - 500x.
If you bet on a number which becomes a lucky number, and then that number wins, you’ll win the amount shown - much more than you’ll win in regular roulette.
That said, Lightning Roulette offers worse odds than regular roulette. Normally roulette pays 35:1 on a straight-up bet, whereas Lightning Roulette pays just 29:1 for non-lightning numbers. That makes the RTP for Lightning Roulette just 81.08%, down from 97.3% for classic European roulette.
Where can I play lightning roulette?
As an Evolution Gaming game, Lightning Roulette is played across all the large casino websites. We enjoy playing at the following:
Roulette with a twist: Double Ball Roulette
Double ball roulette is played much the same way as classic European roulette, but with double the chance to win. As you may have guessed, double ball roulette includes two balls per spin on the roulette wheel.
In this version of live online roulette, you place bets in the same way you would in classic European roulette, but if either ball lands on your chosen number, you win! This means you have more chance to win per spin than in any other version of roulette - making it perfect for anyone who wants to make roulette more exciting.
As a variant of European roulette, double ball roulette still offers the same RTP at 97.3%, so it’s not going to lose you any more money than classic roulette.
Where can I play Double Ball Roulette?
Double ball roulette is available at most of the big online casinos, but we’ve been playing double ball roulette at Pokerstars.
The real roulette experience: Victoria Roulette
Most live online roulette games are played in a for-purpose casino “set”. However, if you’re looking for the real casino experience, you should check out Grosvenor Casinos’ Victoria Roulette. This online live roulette variant is streamed live from The Victoria casino in London.
Victoria Roulette is played by European Roulette rules, and as such offers the best RTP of any roulette variant. The only difference for this game is that it is streamed directly from a real casino (one of the best in London!) and you play virtually alongside real players in the casino. For those of us who have been to The Victoria, it’s a nice way to play virtually with a dealer and environment that you already know well.
Where can I play Victoria Roulette?
Victoria Roulette is exclusive to Grosvenor, unsurprisingly, so if you want to check it out you’ll have to sign up for an online account.
Value for money: Roulette Azure
If you want to play roulette with a live dealer while spending as little money as possible, Roulette Azure is the game for you. Roulette Azure has the smallest minimum bet of any online live roulette game we can find, at just £0.10.
Although there are several live roulette games you can play for £0.10, we’ve chosen Roulette Azure as it offers the highest quality experience at the lowest price. This means that you can make your budget stretch much further when playing online live roulette by only making the minimum bet per spin, yet still extract maximum enjoyment.
Roulette Azure runs 24/7 and has multiple camera angles, lots of on-screen interactivity, and friendly dealers. Roulette Azure is a variant of European roulette, meaning that it also offers the highest RTP (97.3%).
Where can I play Roulette Azure?
We have been playing Roulette Azure at Unibet, but you can play this roulette variant at any casino running roulette games from Pragmatic Play.
For serious players: Speed Roulette
Most online casinos will have a live roulette game labelled “Speed Roulette”. Speed roulette runs just the same as classic online live roulette, but removes the time between spins. As soon as one spin is over, the croupier spins the wheel again - there is no betting time between spins. This means that you need to make bets in the few seconds after the croupier spins the ball and before they call “no more bets”. (The “replay” button is your friend when it comes to Speed Roulette.)
Where can I play Speed Roulette?
If you’re interested in getting the most spins for your time, Speed Roulette is the option for you. You can find Speed Roulette at most online casinos, though we’ve found Grosvenor’s Speed Roulette offers a good experience.
The Classic: European Roulette
Of course, we couldn’t go this whole post without mentioning the online live version of classic European roulette. Sure, it might not be flashy or have any side games or multipliers - but it remains fun on its own and, perhaps more importantly, offers the best RTP of any roulette game.
To find out more about online live roulette, check out our ultimate guide to roulette. If you’re planning on taking your online roulette experience to the casino, we’ve explained the differences between online and live roulette too.