What's the difference between announced bets and regular roulette bets?

Regular bets are placed directly on the numbered felt grid in standard numerical order. Announced bets group numbers by their physical position on the wheel instead, using a racetrack-shaped layout that only exists on French and some European roulette tables.

How many numbers does Voisins du Zero cover?

17 numbers, running from 22 to 25 around the wheel through zero, split across 9 chips placed on specific two- and three-number combinations rather than one chip per number.

Which announced bet covers the fewest numbers?

Jeu Zero, covering just 7 numbers closest to zero on the wheel using 4 chips. It's the most tightly concentrated of the four announced bets, unlike the much broader Voisins du Zero and Le Tiers du Cylindre.

French roulette announced bets explained (Voisins, Tiers, Orphelins and Jeu Zero)

Last updated: 2026-07-30 · Written by Priya Nair

French roulette uses the same single-zero wheel as European roulette, but adds a second betting option built entirely around the wheel's physical layout rather than the numbered felt grid — announced bets, also called called bets, group numbers by where they actually sit next to each other on the wheel instead of by the straight numerical order shown on a standard betting table.

Why these bets exist on a racetrack, not the felt

A standard roulette table groups numbers 1 through 36 in numerical order, but the wheel itself doesn't arrange numbers that way — 0 sits between 32 and 26, with the rest of the sequence scattered in a pattern that has nothing to do with counting order. French roulette tables add a racetrack-shaped oval layout specifically to let players bet on numbers that are physically adjacent on the wheel, a grouping that's simply impossible to represent on the standard numbered grid. These bets are called "announced" because in a live setting the player states the bet verbally rather than placing chips directly, though online and digital tables let players click the racetrack layout directly instead.

Voisins du Zero: the largest neighbor group

Voisins du Zero ("neighbors of zero") covers 17 numbers running from 22 to 25 around the wheel through zero, using 9 chips split across specific two-number and three-number combinations rather than one chip per number. It's the largest of the four announced bets by number count, covering nearly half the wheel, which means it carries a correspondingly higher chance of hitting on any given spin than the smaller groupings, at the cost of spreading the same total stake across more losing combinations.

Le Tiers du Cylindre: the numbers directly opposite zero

Le Tiers du Cylindre ("third of the wheel") covers the 12 numbers sitting on the opposite arc of the wheel from zero, from 27 through 33 in wheel order, using 6 chips placed as splits across every pair in that stretch. Together, Voisins and Tiers cover the two largest continuous wheel sections, leaving a smaller remainder that the third announced bet, Orphelins, is built specifically to cover.

Orphelins and Jeu Zero: the smaller, targeted groupings

Orphelins ("orphans") covers the 8 numbers left over once Voisins du Zero and Le Tiers du Cylindre are accounted for — numbers that don't fall into either of the two larger wheel sections — using 5 chips (one straight-up bet plus four splits). Jeu Zero ("zero game") is the most tightly focused of the four, covering just the 7 numbers closest to zero on the wheel using 4 chips, similar in spirit to how craps table layout explained covers concentrated proposition bets clustered around a specific part of a betting layout rather than spread evenly. Because Jeu Zero covers the fewest numbers of the four announced bets, it carries the lowest hit probability but concentrates the stake most tightly around zero specifically.

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FAQ

What's the difference between announced bets and regular roulette bets? Regular bets are placed directly on the numbered felt grid in standard numerical order. Announced bets group numbers by their physical position on the wheel instead, using a racetrack-shaped layout that only exists on French and some European roulette tables.
How many numbers does Voisins du Zero cover? 17 numbers, running from 22 to 25 around the wheel through zero, split across 9 chips placed on specific two- and three-number combinations rather than one chip per number.
Which announced bet covers the fewest numbers? Jeu Zero, covering just 7 numbers closest to zero on the wheel using 4 chips. It's the most tightly concentrated of the four announced bets, unlike the much broader Voisins du Zero and Le Tiers du Cylindre.

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