Tag: PBR

LIV Golf’s Talor Gooch launches Oklahoma Wildcatters, an expansion PBR team

Talor Gooch is a RangeGoat during his day job. At night, he runs with the bulls.

Talor Gooch is a RangeGoat during his day job. At night, he runs with the bulls.

Gooch’s FJS Ventures and Professional Bull Riders announced Friday the Oklahoma Wildcatters will join PBR Teams, a league featuring the world’s top bull riders. Gooch, the 2023 LIV Golf Player of the Year and Oklahoma native, alongside Preston Lyon, CEO/President of Lyon Sports Group, formed FJS Ventures to invest, operate and/or own sports properties. The Oklahoma Wildcatters is the company’s first business venture.

“Bringing a bull riding team back to Oklahoma where we intend to build a championship-caliber team in the state I love is a dream come true,” Gooch said in a release. “I’ve always been a PBR fan. Team competition makes the sport even more exciting, generates coverage, and creates rabid local fan bases. I’m very excited to join a successful and experienced ownership group working toward growing a sport with vast potential.”

The Wildcatters’ roster will take shape when up to six riders will be selected in the 2024 Expansion Draft, which is scheduled for early April in New York. Unrestricted free agency will open following the expansion draft. Additional riders will fill out the roster when the 2024 New Rider Draft takes place.

Oklahoma’s previous PBR team, the Freedom, moved to Florida after the 2023 season.

“When the Freedom relocated to Florida, our priority as a league was to make sure we would be able to serve the incredible fans in Oklahoma with a team,” said Sean Gleason, CEO and commissioner of PBR. “We’re fortunate that Oklahoma royalty in Talor Gooch stepped in to launch a local team for the long haul. Talor is a proven winner set to build something special for fans.”

The 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series’ 12-event regular season begins on July 12 in Oklahoma City, hosted by the Oklahoma Wildcatters, and culminates with its championship at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Oct. 17-20).

An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the Professional Bull Riders World Finals

 The World Finals – the 7-round championship for the individual bull-riding series that leads into the team league culminates this weekend.

Professional Bull Riders (PBR) gave USA TODAY Sports an exclusive, behind-the-scenes sneak peek of Cole Hauser’s campaign shoot during the World Finals in Fort Worth, Texas. Hauser, who stars as Rip Wheeler on television’s No. 1 drama “Yellowstone,” is PBR’s newly minted brand ambassador and “the epitome of cowboy culture and Western values like hard work, toughness and determination,” said PBR Commissioner and CEO Sean Gleason. 

The finals were all country and rock ‘n roll with Kid Rock surprising fans during a break in the action by taking the stage to sing “All Summer Long” with PBR’s official entertainer Flint Rasmussen.

As the world’s premier bull riding organization, PBR is celebrating 30 years of the annual Unleash The Beast tour (UTB), which features the top bull riders in the world competing for a $1 million bonus, the coveted golden buckle and World Champion title. 

Many of these riders are also part of the PBR Team Series, which is in its second year. The eight-team bull riding league showcases five-on-five bull riding games across an 11-event season. The teams include the Arizona Ridge Riders, Carolina Cowboys, Kansas City Outlaws, Missouri Thunder, Nashville Stampede, Oklahoma Freedom, Texas Rattlers and the reigning champions the Austin Gamblers. 

This growing sport is also featured in “The Ride,” a docuseries on Prime Video debuting globally on May 30. “The Ride” followed athletes during the inaugural 2022 PBR Team Series season, including 2022 World Champion Daylon Swearingen of the Carolina Cowboys and Austin Gambler Ezekiel Mitchell among others, showcasing their passion and commitment to the world’s most dangerous organized sport.

“The Ride” trains an unblinking eye on the often-battered athletes overmatched against 1,800-pound bulls bred to buck, from the locker rooms into the bucking chutes and home to their ranches during the week.

The World Finals – the seven-round championship for the individual bull-riding series that leads into the team league – culminates this weekend at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, and you can unleash the beast here. 

Check out an exclusive trailer for The Ride, Prime Video’s new show following the PBR Team Series

It’s a whole new rodeo this May as PBR introduces a new format.

Fans of Professional Bull Riding (PBR) have a chance to see the sport in a whole new way starting May 30 as The Ride is set to launch on Prime Video. An eight-episode docuseries, The Ride follows PBR riders, coaches and executives through the ups and downs of the inaugural PBR Team Series season.

This is the first time that riders are no longer solo. The new format, as outlined by the official press release, has “riders on eight teams compete in head-to-head, five-on-five game matchups attempting to stay on as many bulls as possible and earn the highest aggregate score to win games across a 28-game regular season and advance to the championship tournament in Las Vegas.”

Check out the trailer here:

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