Professional Bull Riders
 |
|
| Sport | Bull Riding |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1992 |
| Owner(s) | WME-IMG |
| Competitors | Over 1,200 total, 35 in highest ranked tour |
| Countries |
 United States Canada Mexico Brazil Australia New Zealand
|
| Most recent champion(s) |
Cooper Davis
|
| Official website | PBR.com |
Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR) is an international professional bull riding organization based in Pueblo, Colorado, United States. In the United States, PBR events have been televised on CBS and CBS Sports Network since 2013. More than 1,200 cowboys from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand hold PBR memberships.
The organization began in 1992 through the efforts of 21 professional bull riders who gathered in a hotel room in Scottsdale, Arizona and each contributed $1,000. Since that time, the organization has grown to include three tours (the Built Ford Tough Series, Touring Pro Division, and Real Time Pain Relief Velocity Tour) which collectively stage over 100 events in the United States every year. Prize money has exploded from over $330,000 in 1994 to over $11 million in 2008. In 2007, investment firm Spire Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in PBR.
The PBR moved to its current headquarters in Pueblo, Colorado in 2006. Its original headquarters were located in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The PBR's premier tour, the Built Ford Tough Series (formerly the Bud Light Cup Series), includes at most 30 events across the United States every year. Pyrotechnics, pulsating music, and special effects open each event, and each features the top 35 riders in the world at the time. The season culminates in Las Vegas, where the PBR World Finals are held.
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, with four judges scoring both the rider and the bull each from one to twenty five points, the scores are totalled and divided by two, with the final possibility of one hundred points. 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 2003, the PBR has awarded its annual world champion a $1,000,000 bonus.
From 2007–2010, the PBR also hosted a team competition format called the PBR World Cup, where 25 bull riders (altogether representing five different countries) competed to win the title of best bull rider in the world.
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