The 2025 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast - Eliminations kick off the action in Texas on May 8-11.
By Darci Miller
FORT WORTH, Texas – This week, the best bull riders in the world converge on Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas, to kick off the 2025 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast.
The end goal of the World Finals is simple—to walk away with the coveted gold buckle and $1 million World Championship bonus—but we know there might still be a few questions about how we get there.
Here’s everything you need to know about how the 2025 World Champion will be crowned.
After the four Elimination rounds, 20 riders will advance to AT&T Stadium for the Championship Rounds on May 17-18 – the Top 15 in the UTB standings, plus the Top 5 riders in the aggregate that have not already qualified.
The 25 riders who do not advance out of the Elimination rounds have one final opportunity to keep their season alive.
MAY 14-15: RIDE FOR REDEMPTION
Also at Cowtown Coliseum, the Ride For Redemption rounds will be held on May 14-15 for a maximum of 47 riders: the 20 that did not advance to AT&T Stadium out of Eliminations, and a field of invites: 10 PBR Teams invites, five Stockyards Showcase invites, the defending PRCA World Champion, and the Rodeo Corpus Christi Champion. New this year are PWVT invites: any of the five PWVT invites to Eliminations that fail to qualify for the Championship Rounds, and the five riders ranked No. 6-10 in the season-ending PWVT standings at the conclusion of the PWVT Finals.
The first day of Ride For Redemption, May 14, will feature the invites, who will compete in two long rounds. The Top 5 in the aggregate will advance to the next day of Ride For Redemption, where they will compete alongside the 20 riders that did not advance out of Eliminations. On May 15, all riders will attempt a bull in the first round, while the second round will feature all Eliminations riders plus any of the five invites that record a ride in the first round.
The Top 5 in the aggregate from the two rounds on May 15 will advance to the Championship Rounds. The riders who do not advance will be eliminated.
Ride for Redemption offers no points towards the Unleash The Beast World Championship standings. It is simply a final opportunity for riders to continue chasing the world title.
MAY 17-18: CHAMPIONSHIP ROUNDS
Held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on May 17-18, the Championship Rounds are where everyone wants to be.
The Championship Rounds start with a clean slate, with no previous scores carrying over. The 25 qualifiers (20 from Eliminations, five from Ride For Redemption) will compete in two rounds per day. The five riders advancing from Ride For Redemption must ride at least one bull in the first two rounds to advance to Rounds 3 and 4.
At the end of the fourth round, the highest-ranked rider in the UTB standings will be crowned the PBR World Champion. The top-ranked rider in the aggregate of these four rounds will be crowned the 2024 PBR World Finals event champion.
IN A NUTSHELL
The Top 15 riders in the UTB standings advance out of Eliminations, along with the Top 5 in the aggregate who aren’t already qualified. Five more advance out of Ride For Redemption. Everything starts fresh in the Championship Rounds – the aggregate winner of those four rounds will be the World Finals event champion, while the No. 1 rider in the UTB standings will be crowned the World Champion.
WHERE TO WATCH
If you have an internet connection, you can watch the 2025 PBR World Finals.
Eliminations air live on May 8-10 at 8:45 p.m. ET on RidePass, the PBR App, YouTube and X, and at 9 p.m. ET on the Cowboy Channel, and May 11 at 3:45 p.m. ET in all the same places (4 p.m. ET on the Cowboy Channel).
Ride For Redemption is exclusive to the Cowboy Channel and will air at 9 p.m. ET on May 14-15.
The Championship is live on May 17 at 8:45 p.m. ET and May 18 at 2:45 p.m. ET on RidePass, the PBR App, YouTube and X, with the Cowboy Channel again joining at the top of the hour.
