I don’t know how many of you have followed me on twitter from the beginning but for those that did you know that my handle used to be ITG_sports.  Go check me out at the BTB forum and you will see that is still my user name.

Why did I switch it to ITGlife?  Well, the reason is simple.  I decided one day that I sucked at sports betting.  However, I really liked twitter, and felt like there was a lot to learn there.  I figured I would tweet about my life instead of sports even though I knew that no one would care.  So in a moment of frustration and possibly even defeat I changed it.

Well I didn’t quite give up sports betting (I just love it too much) and while I still suck at it for the most part I have tried some things and had some ideas that have built myself a modest following.  At the end of the day I am still just a regular guy that really just wants to be the best I can at this.

With that following though, I hear it more and more.  What does ITG stand for?

Something I have said over and over at this site is – “I am more interested in the guys making the bets than the bets they are making.”  Hell, that is why I started this site.  I wanted it to be something different.  It wasn’t about the picks.  It was about the guy that was making the picks.  His journey, his struggles, his breakthroughs.

The whole idea of this is actually something that I try to follow in life as well.  Believe it or not I am a pretty successful guy.  Pretty wife, great family, six figure job, nice house…that sort of thing.  I think a big reason I got there and have stayed there is because I learned quickly that if you want to be succesful at anything then you should find someone who is successful at that same thing and not only learn what they are doing but try to do it better.  So in essence, I am more interested in the guy that is succesful than the succesful things he has done, if that makes sense.

So after I got my ass handed to me for several months betting on sports,  what did I do?  I started trying to research famous and successful gamblers.

Two guys that popped up were Jimmy the Greek and Nick the Greek.

Well let’s get past the fact that both of them seem to be very interesting guys.  I thought the whole “The Greek” thing just sounded awesome.  Forget that I’m not Greek.  I decided that if I ever had a chance I was going to use that.  It was just an idea really until one day I decided to start a twitter account and start posting plays.

Well my first name is Ian and someone already had @ianthegreek.  There is nothing like having an idea for your twitter handle only to find out it has already been taken by some loser that doesn’t even really tweet.  I toyed around with a few things, even my initials, but nothing seemed to work for me.

Then it hit me.  I could still be Ian the Greek even if I wasn’t @ianthegreek.

I would just be ITG.