European Roulette Wheel Layout: Number Sequence, Colours & Sectors

The European Roulette Wheel: An Overview

The European roulette wheel contains 37 pockets: numbers 1 through 36, plus a single green zero. The pockets are not arranged in numerical order - instead, they follow a carefully engineered sequence designed to alternate high and low numbers, and balance red and black as evenly as possible around the wheel.

Understanding the wheel layout is essential for players who want to place call bets and sector bets, use the racetrack, or understand why certain announced bets (like Voisins du Zéro) cover the numbers they do. It also helps build intuition for which numbers are physically close together on the wheel - relevant for neighbour bets.

Full Clockwise Number Sequence

Starting from zero and going clockwise, the complete 37-pocket sequence is:

Red and Black Numbers - Full Verified Lists

Why Is the Layout Designed This Way?

The wheel sequence follows several deliberate design principles:

• Alternating colours: Red and black alternate almost perfectly around the wheel. Only three pairs of adjacent same-colour numbers exist (5-10, 10-23, 23-8 area), but these are carefully positioned.
• Balancing high and low: High numbers (19–36) and low numbers (1–18) are distributed evenly. No large cluster of high or low numbers appears on any half of the wheel.
• Alternating odd and even: Odd and even numbers are also approximately alternated around the wheel's circumference.
• No adjacent numbers: Consecutive numbers (e.g. 1 and 2, 2 and 3) are never next to each other on the wheel.

Wheel Sectors: The Racetrack

The racetrack is an oval track displayed above or beside the main table in many casinos. It shows all 37 numbers in wheel order, allowing players to quickly identify sectors and place call bets. The simulator's racetrack highlights the winning number after each spin.

Three traditional sectors divide most of the wheel:

Voisins du Zéro - Neighbours of Zero

The 17 numbers closest to zero on the wheel: 22, 18, 29, 7, 28, 12, 35, 3, 26, 0, 32, 15, 19, 4, 21, 2, 25. This is the largest sector, covering nearly half the wheel. A standard Voisins bet uses 9 chips.

Tiers du Cylindre - Third of the Wheel

The 12 numbers on the opposite side of the wheel from zero: 27, 13, 36, 11, 30, 8, 23, 10, 5, 24, 16, 33. Uses 6 chips placed as splits across these 6 pairs.

Orphelins - Orphans

The 8 numbers not covered by Voisins or Tiers: 17, 34, 6 (one slice) and 1, 20, 14, 31, 9 (another). Uses 5 chips: one straight up on 1, four splits.

Table Layout: From Wheel to Felt

The betting table maps numbers to a 3-row grid. Understanding how the table relates to the physical wheel:

• Zero sits in a cell on the left, spanning all three rows
• Top row contains: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36 (multiples of 3)
• Middle row contains: 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35
• Bottom row contains: 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34
• Numbers increase left to right - 1–3 at the left edge, 34–36 at the right
• Column 1 (right label): 1, 4, 7, …, 34 - all numbers where n mod 3 = 1
• Column 2 (right label): 2, 5, 8, …, 35 - all numbers where n mod 3 = 2
• Column 3 (right label): 3, 6, 9, …, 36 - all numbers where n mod 3 = 0

For a complete guide to placing every type of bet on the table, see our betting types guide. For the mathematics behind the wheel, visit our odds and house edge page.