Startups, even for sports or brands with a solid core audience, are tough. Just getting through Proof of Concept while managing cash flow and expectations can be a bear, or in this case a bull, so its’ nice to see PBR teams not just coming back but moving ahead for season two.
After generating incremental buzz with its Prime Video docuseries “The Ride,” PBR (Professional Bull Riders) made more noise last week with a veritable avalanche of business news.
Perhaps most notable, ahead of Monday night’s season opener for PBR Teams — the bull riding league that debuted in July 2022 —was news first reported by Sportico that PBR will add two more teams, expanding to 10 to compete in the 2024 season.
There haven’t been many new sports leagues to burst onto the scene in recent years that not only debuted on network television but also expanded after a single season.
PBR is an outlier. Opening bids for the two team sanctions start at $20 million each — a significant bump from the $3 million the first teams went for, according to Sports Business Journal.
PBR says discussions are underway with 30 potential team owners, demonstrating the strong appeal of turning an individual sport to one that now has wins and losses, an athlete draft, blockbuster trades, growing local fan and partner bases, new merchandise opportunities, and increased media coverage.
Marcus Lemonis, Chairman and CEO of Camping World, the world’s largest recreational vehicle dealer, recognized that growth potential, talked to team owners like NASCAR legend Richard Childress, and came on board as title sponsor of the series that last year was simply known as PBR Teams.
The new Camping World Team Series is a wheelhouse partnership for Lemonis, who in a redirection of his sports marketing portfolio, is no longer sponsoring MLB or NASCAR’s truck series. Instead, he’s opting into the naming rights for this year’s Camping World SRX Series in auto racing along with the bull riding teams league, giving him ample canvas to tell his brand’s story. Lemonis says his goal is “to expand into new markets and solidify our position as the RV dealer of choice within PBR’s passionate and growing fan base.”
When the league’s second season opens at Cheyenne Frontier Days, the five-on-five bull riding games will be part of the booming legal sports betting landscape, courtesy of PBR’s cross-company relationship with OpenBet to price, create and distribute odds for its events.
during the first day of the PBR Teams Championship event. Photo by Andy Watson / Bull Stock Media
If you’ve recently paid attention to interviews with Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro, you’ve heard about “the Endeavor flywheel” — units of their sprawling company working together to innovate…and generate new revenue and profit. When it comes to bull riding, no one’s been able to figure out how to set odds and pricing for a sport where half of each ride score comes from an unpredictable snot-slinging 1,800-pound bull bred to buck. PBR’s close relationship with Open Bet, which works closely with ALT Sports Data to allow the sport to enter the betting market, is quintessential Endeavor flywheel.
Just as a credible betting book on PBR will help draw casual sports fans, so does a new partnership with Univision, becoming PBR’s first Spanish-language broadcast partner.
PBR Commissioner and CEO Sean Gleason says that 17% of the sport’s audience is Hispanic. He’s banking that will grow with games carried and promoted by the leader in reaching Latinos who have a heritage steeped in rodeo and a cultural affinity to the sport.
Amid the whirlwind of deals hitting last week, the bedrock of PBR’s fan exposure remains: CBS Sports will carry 40+ hours of 2023 Teams action across CBS, Paramount+ and CBS Sports Network, including 7 “Game of the Week” broadcasts on CBS Television Network.
It’s fitting that in a sport pushing the edges of the innovation envelope, the bull riding games will be called by Kate Harrison, the only female currently serving as the primary voice of a major professional sports league on network television.
A tip of the cowboy hat to PBR on shattering that glass ceiling along with last week’s tsunami of deals forming one heckuva wave.
