An outside bet is a roulette wager placed in the boxes around the number grid, covering a large group of numbers in one go. The table layout is split into an inside and an outside betting area, and outside bets are the simpler, lower-risk options. The exact printed design varies by manufacturer, but the bets stay the same:
- Red or black, odd or even, 1–18 or 19–36: even-money bets paying 1 to 1.
- Dozens (1–12, 13–24, 25–36) and columns: each covers 12 numbers and pays 2 to 1.
None of these bets include zero, which is where the house edge on them comes from. Some single-zero tables soften that with la partage, which returns half of an even-money stake when zero lands, or en prison, which holds the stake for the next spin.