FORT WORTH, Texas (February 11, 2025) – PBR (Professional Bull Riders) today announced that a PBR Teams Combine will be held in Icem, Sao Paulo, Brazil, February 18-20.
The scouting combine, which will be attended by all 10 teams competing in the league, will be held in conjunction with Paulo Emilio, owner of Country Bulls, a leading bull stock contractor in Brazil. PBR is working closely with Brazil’s leading bull riding associations to ensure the next generation of bull riders are in attendance. Riders and officials from the Associacao de Campeoes de Rodeio (ACR), Circuito Rancho Primavera (CRP), Ekip Rozeta (Ekip) and Liga Nacional de Rodeio (Liga) are participating.
Following combines in Colorado, North Carolina and Texas in past seasons, this is the league’s first scouting event outside of the United States. While the combine will not be open to fans, PBR is considering a fan component for 2026.
On February 18-19, 44 of the best riders in the country who are eligible for the 2025 New Rider Draft will participate. On February 20, 15 current unrestricted free agents, who have previously gone through a PBR Teams Draft (2022-24), will be invited to attend and be immediately available for teams to sign.
The 2025 PBR Teams New Rider Draft will be held in late May at a location to be announced.
“Brazil has been a hotbed of bull riding talent for a league whose only limit to further expansion is the number of qualified bull riders who can stay on the world’s rankest bulls,” said Sean Gleason, Commissioner and CEO, PBR. “This is an opportunity for riders to showcase their skills to ten teams hungry for talent, increasing their chances of being drafted in 2025.”
In addition to attempting bulls, riders will be measured on balance, hip abduction, and core and grip strength.
Additionally, the combine will serve as a training session for select Brazilian judges with the objective of having Brazilian judges based in the U.S to judge at future PBR-sanctioned events.
Since PBR Teams launched in 2022, more 40% of the riders on rosters have been Brazilian. Presently half (38 of 76) of all Protected Roster riders are Brazilian. An average of 13 Brazilians has been chosen in the league’s annual New Rider Draft.
Brazilian riders have been very successful throughout PBR’s history:
- The first World Champion in 1994 was the Brazilian legend Adriano Moraes, who was also the sport’s first three-time World Champion. Fellow Brazilian Silvano Alves would later join him as the only other rider with three individual world titles.
- Nine of the past 15 PBR World Championships have been won by a Brazilian: Cassio Dias (2024), Raphael Jose de Brito (2023), Jose Vitor Leme (2020, 2021), Kaique Pacheco (2018), Silvano Alves (2011, 2012 and 2014) and Renato Nunes (2010).
- In 2022, Leme was named the first MVP of the inaugural PBR Teams season and repeated in 2023. Leme also has the two highest-scored rides in PBR history.
- The other PBR Teams MVP is John Crimber (2024), whose father Paulo, a pioneering Brazilian rider who qualified for 10 PBR World Finals, is now John’s coach on the Florida Freedom.
PBR Teams, launched in 2022, expanded from 8 to 10 teams ahead of the 2024 (third) season with team valuations increasing approximately eightfold. Attendance in the 2024 Teams season increased +15% over 2023. Television audiences have grown as well. The 2024 season averaged 1.4 million unique U.S. viewers per 2024 telecast up from 1.1M in 2022 (increase of +22% in total viewers since 2022).
Bull riders scheduled to participate in the PBR BRAZIL 2025 Combine:
Tuesday / Wednesday (Feb. 18-19) – 2025 Draft-Eligible Athletes
Alex da SIlva Oliveira
Andre Máximo da Silva
Carlos Rafael Monteiro de Lana
Damiao Soares Dos Santos
Daniel de Araújo Pereira
Douglas Xavier da Silva
Elzisclay Rodrigues dos Santos
Fabiano Aparecido Ribeiro da Silva
Fabricio Gomes
Gabriel de Jesus Pereira
Gean Carlos Piris da Silva
Geovane Pereira do Nascimento
Hidelvan Silva Ribeiro
Higor Moiseis Marcal Pereira
Jhon Carlos Moreira Carvalho
João Augusto Célio Rosa
João Gleyson Ferreira Lopes
João Pedro Leal Marques
Joao Victor Garcia
João Vitor Alves Monteiro dos Santos
Leandro Martins de Souza
Lucas Eduardo da Costa Silva
Lucas Queiroz dos Santos
Marco Antonio Braghiroli
Mario de Negri
Matheus Andrade da Silva
Matheus Henrique Ferreira da Silva
Pablo Soares
Paulo Henrique de Souza
Riquelme Silva dos Santos
Romario Goncalves Domingos
Romario Leite
Tales Silva Xavier
Uermeson Veras dos Santos
Valdenilson Aparecido Pereira
Vinicius Arcanjo de Freitas
Warley de Oliveira da Silva
Wemerson Nogueira Alves
Willian Lima Teixeira
Zilmar Filho Soares Rocha
Thursday (Feb. 20) – Unrestricted Free Agents
Álvaro Alves da Cunha
Ayslan Jeferson dos Reis Santos
Bruno Roberto
Cleber Henrique Marques
Gustavo Luiz da Silva
Vanderson Barbosa dos Santos
Vinicius Rodrigues Pereira
Vitor Manoel Dias
Fabio Eleuterio da Silva
Felipe da Cruz Souza
Gean Pereira Carvalho
Luiz Felipe Azevedo da Silva
Marcos da Silva Gomes
Mateus Aparecido dos Santos
Winy Paulo dos Santos
About the PBR Camping World Team Series
The PBR Camping World Team Series is an elite league featuring the world’s top bull riders competing on teams in five-on-five games during a 12-event regular season leading to a Team Championship at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. During the 2025 season, the league’s fourth, each of the 10 teams – Arizona Ridge Riders of Glendale, AZ, Austin Gamblers of Austin, TX; Carolina Cowboys of Greensboro, NC; Florida Freedom of Sunrise, FL; Kansas City Outlaws of Kansas City, MO; Missouri Thunder of Springfield, MO; Nashville Stampede of Nashville, TN; New York Mavericks of New York, NY; Oklahoma Wildcatters of Oklahoma City, OK; and Texas Rattlers of Fort Worth, TX – will host a homestand and two neutral-site games are planned in Anaheim, CA and Duluth, GA.
PBR Teams, launched in July 2022, builds on the existing structure of professional bull riding with the same basic rules for judging and scoring qualified 8-second bull rides. In events staged in a tournament-style format, all teams compete in head-to-head matchups against a different opponent each day. Each game features five riders per team squaring off against another team. Full team rosters are comprised of seven riders on the Protected Roster and five Reserve riders. The team with the highest aggregate score of qualified rides among its riders is declared the winner of each game.
CBS Television Network is the official media partner of PBR Teams. For more information, visit PBR.com, or follow on Facebook at Facebook.com/PBR, Twitter at Twitter.com/PBR, and YouTube at YouTube.com/PBR.
PROVIDED COURTESY OF PBR FOR TENN TEXAS MEDIA
