Welcome to our new article series where we ask experts in the sports betting industry the questions you need answered!

To kick things off, we thought we’d help out all you beginner sports bettors, as we ask the question:

Q1: What are your Top 3 tips for sports betting beginners? Answers below!

Check out Part 2 of our answers here, where we get the opinions of betting analyst Joseph Buchdahl, The Business of Betting Podcast, author True Poker Joe & The Church of Betting.

SPANKY - PRO SPORTS BETTOR & HOST OF BE BETTER BETTORS

1. Get as many outliers as possible. Line shopping is the easiest, yet most effective tool to maximise your edge.
2. Learn the value of a half point for every sport you plan to bet. This will make line shopping that much more valuable.
3. Set aside a gambling bankroll. If an outcome of one event affects your life in any way, you are betting too much.

Follow @Spanky on Twitter & check out the article The Ringer wrote about him here.

Editor's Note: If you are looking for somewhere to find the best odds available (line shopping) on a game, Vegas-Odds is a great website to help you find all the prices bookmakers are offering.

PETE LING - FOUNDER OF SMART BETTING CLUB

1. First of all it is hugely important to spend time educating yourself on some key betting concepts such as how value betting works, betting banks and the psychology of being a winning punter. I call it getting the fundamentals in place and understanding both the theoretical knowledge of what it takes to win and the practical application of how to put it into practice. Many of these topics are not complex but do sometimes require a realignment of how you mentally approach betting and of course a little bit of time reading all of it and getting set up. As ever - the more time you put into something, the more you will get out of it. There are no shortcuts to success.
2. I would also highly recommend keeping a diligent record of all the bets you place as without this you will have no idea on your performance levels, nor be able to explore it for any areas of strength and weakness. I find many punters when they do this are able to quickly identify how they can remove some losing bets they are placing OR even by staking differently or higher on the more profitable areas/sports or markets.
3. Something that is absolutely crucial is giving yourself time to make your betting a success. In today's age of instant gratification and short attention spans this can be a real challenge for many but there is no substitute for patience. Variance and losing runs can hit at any time, so you just have to be patient when they do, ride them out and give your methods and strategies time to showcase a profit. The worst thing you can do is quit after just a few weeks or at the first sign of a bad run and go from an out of form tipster to an in-form one. Instead, give yourself a proper time period - say 12 months for any tipster/strategy and don't get too high when you win or too low when you lose.

Follow @SBCinfo on Twitter & check out the Smart Betting Club website here.

STEVE - OWNER OF DAILY25

1. Track every bet: This gives you the ability to see what is working and what isn't. Also, compare those bets to the pinnacle closing line. It was the most important step in making a profit for me, which I started on my own site, it makes it easy to track your bets.
2. Read the Stoics: The books are free (I recommend Letters from a Stoic and Meditations). No matter how good you are, you will have losing runs that are likely to ruin you mentally more than financially. These philosophies have stood the test of time (over 2000 years) and the letters from Seneca feel like he is writing to you today.
3. Think in percentages. Give odds to everything. If you make a statement, be ready to back it up with odds and money. This will help you spot value in the future.

Follow @Day25 on Twitter & check out the Daily25 blog here.

ALEX ONG - FOOTBALL, FOREX & STOCKS TRADER

This is a great question and one that I had to think about as I didn’t want to state the obvious, or throw out some theoretical nonsense that in the end doesn’t help anyone. To answer this I am going to draw on my financial trading background and experience.

1. A betting beginner needs to get their head around probabilities and their edge will realistically play out in real time. Take a coin toss as an example. We know that each toss of the coin gives us a 50% chance for both heads and tails. So in theory if we toss the coin 10 times we should see 5 heads and 5 tails. Now we all know that this isn’t true, that in fact we could see 10 tails and no heads. Why? Because if you take a small sample size of anything, you will see a random distribution. However the larger the sample size gets, the more you will see the probabilities play out. So if you take 50 coin tosses you may see a 40/60 split, 100 tosses, 45/55 and so on. The more bets you take with a solid system the more likely you are to see your edge play out.
2. Focus on one market and something that you are familiar with. I see it a lot, that when people come to the betting markets, they try to dabble in everything, some horses today, tennis tomorrow and football at the weekend. In the end they aren’t really trying to make money, they are just looking for action. If you want to be successful, I really feel you should start by specialising in something that you can relate to, and then you can slowly branch out.
3. Finally, I would have to say to give it time. Don’t start betting today and expect to be profitable by the end of the month. You have to get to know the markets, and how prices move and that doesn’t happen overnight. Give yourself at least 6 months before you make a judgement on whether betting is for you or not.

So in summary, probabilities, specialisation and time. If you can focus on just these three areas I think you will put yourself in a good place to be successful in the long run.

Subscribe to Alex’s YouTube channel here & check out the Alex Ong website here.

Check out Part 2 of our answers here, where we get the opinions of betting analyst Joseph Buchdahl, The Business of Betting Podcast, author True Poker Joe & The Church of Betting.

Love getting the opinions from experts in the betting industry? Then subscribe to the Trademate Sports Podcast, where interview the most important people in the sports betting industry, along with the occasional chat about the EPL.

Here are the other questions we got our industry experts to answer:

• Q2: How do you define “finding value” in betting markets? Part 1 & Part 2.
• Q3: How do you determine whether your betting results were caused by skill or luck? Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3.
• Q4: Kelly criterion or flat staking: Which stake sizing strategy do you consider to be the best and why? Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3.
• Q5: What is the best method to use to make money from sports betting? Part 1& Part 2.
• Q6: How difficult is it to beat the sports betting markets? How efficient are the odds? Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3.
• Q7: Best way to manage risk in sports betting? Part 1 & Part 2.
• Q8: Is there a best sport to bet on? If so, what is it? Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3.
• Q9: Assuming you have an edge, at what point can you start accurately evaluating your results and say that variance has played out? Part 1 & Part 2.
• Q10: What is the one thing you would like to see change in the gambling industry? Part 1 & Part 2.
• Q11: Do you think emotions play a part in people's sports betting results? If so, how should they overcome this? Part 1& Part 2.
• Q12: What are the top 3 mistakes people make when betting? Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3.