Danny Sheridan has spent more than three decades turning sports odds into a national brand from his home base in Mobile. This week, his hometown is recognizing him for it: Sheridan joins the 2019 class of the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame, with inductions set for Thursday at the Battle House Hotel.
Sheridan provided daily odds for every major sport to USA TODAY from 1982 to 2012 and remains a familiar voice on national radio during college and pro football seasons, along with appearances on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN, TBS and CNBC. In 1993, The Sporting News ranked him No. 52 on its list of the nation’s “100 Most Powerful People in Sports,” placing him ahead of figures like Bob Costas, John Madden and Jack Nicklaus. His profile grew large enough that Saturday Night Live parodied him in three separate sketches.
From Murphy High to the National Stage
A Murphy High School and University of Alabama graduate, Sheridan has written more than a dozen books on poker, fantasy football and rotisserie baseball, plus annual preseason previews for national magazines. He also became an advocate for legalized sports wagering, testifying before a congressional committee in 2001 against a proposed ban on NCAA betting in Nevada; the bill failed.
In August 2018 he placed the first legal sports bet in Mississippi history, cutting the ribbon on the sports book at the Beau Rivage resort in Biloxi.
Sheridan headlines a 2019 class that also includes former Major League Baseball star Luis Gonzalez, along with Roy Patton, Nyla Shepherd, Rick Trickett and the late Rea Schuessler.