There are many popular betting strategies floating around, and one of the best-known ones is called the ‘Labouchere Betting System.’ Despite the fancy name, this is a simple betting strategy that can help you net a tidy profit by structuring your bets and wagering your money gradually on half-chance games.
While this strategy was created to work with roulette games, you can adapt it to work with almost any gambling activity, provided all of your bets are made at close to 50% odds. This can include baccarat, blackjack, and even sports betting. So no matter your preferences, this could be the strategy for you!
Other Betting Strategies:
What is the Labouchere Betting System
The Labouchere betting strategy is what’s called a ‘negative progression system.’ This means that as you lose, the size of your bets increases. The Labouchere system is sometimes also called the Split-Martingale, Cancellation, or American Progression.
It was originally developed by British politician and journalist Henry Labouchere. Like many negative progression strategies, it was designed to work with roulette, since so many of the wagers have even odds. This system effectively structures your bets to help you reach a specific profit goal, provided you have a large enough bankroll.
In a scenario where you’re playing with genuine 50/50 odds, this system will always help you reach your profit if you have an infinite bankroll. But it’s not quite so clear-cut in reality. Since you have to account for the house edge and a reasonable budget, the success rate inevitably lowers.
However, even if this strategy won’t guarantee you a profit (as no betting strategy can), it’s a great way to structure your bets and improve your odds of taking home a profit.
How to Use the Labouchere Betting System
The Labouchere betting system is one of the easiest betting systems to use, but you might want to have a notepad present while you use it, whether it’s pen and paper or just your smartphone.
Let’s take this system step by step to help you get started:
- Pick your profit goal — make sure it’s a reasonable goal for your budget. We recommend that your budget be at least three times larger than your goal.
- Split your profit goal into smaller numbers — for example, dividing $100 into ten lots of $10. Make these reasonable, as they determine the size of your bets.
- Arrange these smaller numbers into a sequence — we recommend noting this down on paper or your phone.
- Add the first and last numbers in the sequence, and add them together. Now bet this amount.
- If you win, remove the numbers you added from your sequence. If you lose, add the value of your stake to the end of the sequence.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 with your new sequence — so you add whatever is now at the start and end of the updated sequence of numbers.
- Continue to repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 until you make your profit — this can lead to larger and larger bets as you progress through your sequence, especially if you have a bad losing streak.
There are only two exceptions to step 4 that may arise as you play:
- If you only have one number left in your sequence, bet that alone.
- If your new bet exceeds what is left of your budget, just spend whatever you have left, and if you win, add whatever you didn’t wager to your next wager. If you lose, it’s time to cut your losses.
When explained like this, it can seem a little complicated. So let’s go through an example to help you better visualize how this system works:
Example
Step 1: We’ll choose a profit goal of $50
Steps 2 & 3: To keep things simple, we’ll split our $50 into five lots of ten, like so:
10 10 10 10 10
Step 4: Time to determine our first bet. We’ll add the first 10 and the last 10 together for a bet of $20.
Step 5: Let’s say we won this bet. Now, we take our sequence and remove the two digits that we used earlier. Our sequence now looks like this:
10 10 10
Repeats: Back to step four, we take the next two 10s for another bet of $20. But this time, let’s say that we lost the bet. Following step 5, we now add that 20 to the end of the sequence like so:
10 10 10 20
From here, we would return to step 4 and add 10 and 20 together, for a new bet of $30. The strategy continues in this manner. Here’s how this example could play out:
| Sequence | Bet | Win/Lose |
| 10 10 10 10 10 | $20 | Win |
| 10 10 10 | $20 | Lose |
| 10 10 10 20 | $30 | Lose |
| 10 10 10 20 30 | $40 | Lose |
| 10 10 10 20 30 40 | $50 | Win |
| 10 10 20 30 | $40 | Win |
| 10 20 | $30 | Lose |
| 10 20 30 | $40 | Win |
| 20 | $20 | Win |
With that, we’ve met our $50 profit goal! Of course, this was an ideal scenario, and using a larger profit goal can lead to a longer, more variable experience. We recommend practising with a coin toss before using it at the table to ensure you understand and enjoy this strategy.
Pros and Cons of the Labouchere Betting System
Many things make the Labouchere betting system a great strategy, but it has several turn-offs that might not settle well with everyone.
✔️Pros
- Established and proven — while the Labouchere system doesn’t guarantee you success, it has a history of helping people towards specific goals
- Simple to follow — this is one of the easier strategies to use, especially since you can write it down to keep track
- Wide application — as long as you’re betting on even odds, you can apply the Labouchere system to almost any game
❌ Cons
- Negative Progression — this system leads to you making larger bets when you lose, which can quickly lead to the gambler’s fallacy
- Bad for budget players — as you progress, this system requires larger and larger bets. So it’s unfriendly to players on a small budget
Labouchere Betting and Roulette
If you look around for betting strategies, you’ll find that many of them were developed specifically to work with roulette games. This is especially true for negative progression systems like the Labouchere system.
Roulette is a prime target for systems like this because of how many bets work at odds close to 50%, especially during the game’s early days. So, not only is it easy to understand the probability of a bet, but you also know the profit versus loss, since you always double your stake. The original European roulette wheel has the best odds of any variation, and this is the wheel most of these old strategies were made for (French roulette uses the same wheel but with additional rules to achieve an even smaller house edge).
Modern roulette, especially variations played in the States, tends to have significantly higher house edges with lower buy-ins. So before you run to the roulette table, take a moment to consider what sort of wheel you’re playing on and whether this system is appropriate for it (we typically recommend staying away from triple-zero roulette).
What Other Games can you use the Labouchere Betting System for?
While the Labouchere system was designed for roulette, that doesn’t mean it’s the only game you can use it on. You can apply to almost anything if you’re working with the right odds. Here are our favourite examples:
- Baccarat — the closest equivalent to roulette here is baccarat (Punto Banco or mini-baccarat). Player and Banker bets are both almost 50% (with the banker a little bit better), so you can confidently apply the Labouchere to it. Just avoid betting on ties.
- Blackjack — blackjack is the casino game with the smallest house edge, which makes it a great contender for the Labouchere system. However, this house edge relies on your understanding of blackjack odds and making optimal plays.
- Sportsbetting — many people enjoy using systems like the Labouchere on simple sports betting across an extended period. You’ll need to be selective with the odds you bet on, but since the Labouchere system helps you win back losses, it can be an interesting choice for sports betting.
Games to NOT use the Labouchere system on:
- Poker — since poker doesn’t have consistent odds or returns, and you don’t even play against the house, it’s a poor choice for the Labouchere system. Video poker also isn’t a great option.
- Slots — slots usually come with a house edge of around 5%, so there’s a good argument for using betting strategies on slots. However, we don’t recommend it. Since returns from slot games aren’t in any way reliable, a betting system like the Labouchere that relies on making up losses won’t be effective.
How Effective is the Labouchere Betting System
No betting strategy will work 100% of the time, and anyone trying to convince you otherwise is either trying to scam you or isn’t very bright. However, that doesn’t mean the Labouchere system isn’t worth your time or won’t help you improve your odds.
Giving structure to your bets will always be better than going in blind and making wagers based on gut instinct. If you like to play with large budgets and have the patience to wait through some pretty big dips into the red, the Labouchere system can help you account for losses and increase your odds of coming out on top.
FAQs
What is the Labouchere strategy in betting?
The Labouchere strategy is a negative progression system where you split your desired profit into multiple smaller numbers and use them to determine how much you bet. When you lose a wager, that loss is added to the end of your numbers to compensate for your losses later. This way, if you go long enough, you could reclaim your losses.
Does the Labouchere betting system work?
Like any other betting strategy, the Labouchere betting system isn’t guaranteed to work. However, it’s reliable and can help you better structure your bets instead of just making gut reactions.
Can you use the Labouchere system for sports betting?
Theoretically, the Labouchere betting system can be used on any form of gambling, including sports betting. However, remember that the Labouchere system is only effective when used on odds close to 50%.
