The Final Four begins this weekend -- the women's semifinals, featuring the LSU Fighting Tigers, are tonight, and the men get started tomorrow. It's a big event for people who bet on sports, too.
Louisiana is poised to rake in a lot of revenue, thanks to sports gambling.
"Historically, the Final Four as an event overall, over a number of weeks, is the largest single event around the country in terms of sports betting," said Louisiana Gaming Control Board chairman Ronnie Johns.
Johns said an added bonus is that both men's and women's Final Fours are in Texas -- the men in Houston and the women in Dallas -- and he expects a lot of Texas-based fans will travel to Lake Charles or Shreveport to get in on the betting action.
"We think the Lake Charles market and the Shreveport-Bossier market will both be huge in terms of Texas people coming in, placing their bets," said Johns. "They can't do it in Texas, so they're coming to Louisiana to do it."
Johns says in the first year of mobile sports betting in Louisiana, the state received $41 million in revenue, more than $10 million more than was expected.
