Gambling is one of the most popular uses for cryptocurrencies, and amongst the most popular gambling services are bitcoin multiplier and dice sites. But can you increase your chances of winning when playing these multiplier games?

The answer may surprise you.

Betting systems are as old as gambling itself, and in this article I will introduce you to probably the most famous one of them all: the Martingale system.

What is the Martingale betting system?

Originally developed in 18th century France for betting on a simple coin toss, this system is relatively easy to implement and can be used in any situation where you can double your money if you win (and the odds are therefore close to 50/50). This includes bitcoin multiplier games.

Here is how it works: Each time you lose, you double your wager and bet again. It is that simple. So if you start with a $1 bet and stand to get $2 if you win:

If you do win on your first go that’s great, you can just take your winnings or start again with another $1 bet.

If you lose then you go again but with a $2 bet. You have now staked $1+$2 = $3. If you win you double your money, so you get $4 back, meaning you still get the same $1 profit as you would have if you won the first time ($4-$3=$1). If you lose twice you do the same again, so $1+$2+$4 = $7 and you get $8 back from your final bet if you win, again making a $1 profit. It doesn’t matter how many times you have to place a bet before you win, if you keep going you will always (in theory) come out with a $1 profit, at which point you can start again from the beginning and keep going to win more.

But does the Martingale system really work?

Whether or not the martingale system works depends entirely on what you expect it to do. If you are looking for a guaranteed way to win and make money then no, it doesn’t work. If you are looking to eliminate risk so you can’t ever lose then no it doesn’t work.

The conventional wisdom is that the martingale system doesn’t work in real life because there will always come a point where you are unable to double your bet to recoup losses; perhaps you run out of funds, or perhaps you just hit up against the betting limits imposed by the service you are using. The conventional wisdom states that you would need unlimited funds, unlimited time, and a site operator willing to take infinitely large bets in order for this system to work.

But that doesn’t mean that the Martingale system doesn’t do anything at all. In a sense it does work as a system, just not in the way that most people think. I say this because it does work to change the risks you take and also your chances of winning. When using the Martingale system you can dramatically increase your chances of winning, but you do so at the cost of also increasing the amount you are willing to risk if you lose.

For example, under ordinary circumstances in a dice game you might risk $1 in order to win $1 with a slightly less than 50% chance of winning. Using the Martingale system you can stump up $1000 or even $10000 in your account and risk it all to win that same $1. Do this once and you have a very, very good chance of winning your $1. With 50% chance you would win 99.9% of the time with $1000 and hae even better odds with more to risk (actual odds depend on the house edge). But there is still a small but real chance you will end up losing the whole $1000 trying to win just $1.

So if you are not too greedy about what you want to win (try to keep going until you double your entire pot of money and you are more likely to lose everything than win anything), and you are willing to take a small risk of losing a lot, then the Martingale system can work to dramatically increase your chances of winning.

How to use the Martingale strategy on Bitcoin multiplier sites

Many bitcoin multiplier and dice sites have an ‘autobet’ function that is perfect for using this strategy.

I’m going to use FreeBitco.in here as example because they have a good game and also pay interest on any balance you hold with them (and also have a faucet, loyalty rewards which are great when using a system like this where you place lots of bets, contests and other stuff).

Go to ‘Muliply BTC’ and select ‘Autobet’ from the top of the green game box.

You can leave the bet odds at the default of 2, but change these settings:

• Base bet: How much you want to start betting at; I would recommend choosing something very small compared to your total account balance you are willing to risk.
• No. of rolls: Change this to however many times you want to play
• Stop Betting After: Set the maximum amount you are winning to lose and if you wish also what profit you are happy to stop after.
• On Win: Leave it at the default of ‘return to base bet’
• On Lose: Set to increase bet by 100%

Good luck and have fun!