Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (
PBR) is an international professional
bull ridingBull riding is a rodeo sport that involves a rider getting on a large bull and attempting to stay mounted for at least 8 seconds while the animal attempts to buck off the rider. The rider tightly fastens one hand to the bull with a long braided rope...
organization based in
Pueblo, ColoradoPueblo is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The population was estimated to be 104,951 in 2008, making it the 245th most populous city in the United States....
, USA. PBR events are televised on
VersusVersus is a sports-oriented cable television network in the United States. It is owned by Comcast.It was previously known as OLN until a name change on September 25, 2006. Formerly, OLN stood for Outdoor Life Network, and the name was licensed from Outdoor Life magazine...
,
FOXFox Sports is a division of the Fox Broadcasting Company . It was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League games...
, and
NBCNBC Sports is the sports division of NBC. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games , the NFL, the NHL, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, the USGA Championships, Wimbledon, and the French Open, among...
. More than 800 cowboys from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Australia, and Mexico hold PBR memberships.
The organization began in 1992 through the efforts of 20 professional bull riders, who each contributed $1000. Since that time, the organization has grown to include four tours which collectively stage over 300 events worldwide every year.
Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (
PBR) is an international professional
bull ridingBull riding is a rodeo sport that involves a rider getting on a large bull and attempting to stay mounted for at least 8 seconds while the animal attempts to buck off the rider. The rider tightly fastens one hand to the bull with a long braided rope...
organization based in
Pueblo, ColoradoPueblo is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The population was estimated to be 104,951 in 2008, making it the 245th most populous city in the United States....
, USA. PBR events are televised on
VersusVersus is a sports-oriented cable television network in the United States. It is owned by Comcast.It was previously known as OLN until a name change on September 25, 2006. Formerly, OLN stood for Outdoor Life Network, and the name was licensed from Outdoor Life magazine...
,
FOXFox Sports is a division of the Fox Broadcasting Company . It was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League games...
, and
NBCNBC Sports is the sports division of NBC. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games , the NFL, the NHL, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, the USGA Championships, Wimbledon, and the French Open, among...
. More than 800 cowboys from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Australia, and Mexico hold PBR memberships.
The organization began in 1992 through the efforts of 20 professional bull riders, who each contributed $1000. Since that time, the organization has grown to include four tours which collectively stage over 300 events worldwide every year. Prize money has exploded from $250,000 in 1994 to over $11 million in 2008.
The PBR's premier tour, the
Built Ford Tough SeriesThe Built Ford Tough Series is the "major league" tour of the PBR competitions. It is a 30-city event series culminating in the PBR World Finals every year in Las Vegas, Nevada. The top 45 riders of the PBR compete in the BFTS with the rankings determined by points and money won...
, includes 31 events across the country every year. Pyrotechnics, pulsating music and special effects open each event, and each features the top 40 riders in the world at the time. Riders attempt to stay on a bucking bull for eight seconds, and rides are judged based on both the rider's and the bull's performance. At the end of each event, the top 15 riders compete in the short round, or "short go"; the rider with the highest point total from the entire event becomes the winner.
Since 2007, PBR also host a team competition format called
PBR World CupThe new PBR World Cup is a team competition in which riders from 5 countries compete for their share of a $100,000 prize. Each team field 5 riders from their respective countries....
, where 25 bull riders compete to win the title of best bull riders nation.
Total viewership, including event attendees and the television audience, grew 51.93 percent between 2002 and 2004. In 2004, 16.4 million fans watched or attended a PBR event. In 2008, over 100 million watched the PBR on television, and over 1.7 million attended a live event.
Randy Bernard runs the PBR as CEO.
The PBR publishes its own magazine,
Pro Bull Rider, seven times a year.
External links