The Greatest Show on Dirt.

The Greatest Eight Seconds in Sports.

“We all have each other’s backs for our team,” bull rider Dalton Kasel said to MySA. “You always want to see people do good in the individual season, but you always want to do better than them. In the team deal, you want to see your teammates do better than you. It’s really neat to see how everybody jives and how we’re able to pick each other up when one person might be down.”

The Gamblers were founded in 2022 and alongside the Texas Rattlers are the only Texas teams in the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Team Series. While the PBR has been operating since 1992, the teams angle has added a fresh wrinkle to the rodeo circuit. Whereas individual rodeos, like the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, see individuals vie for glory, the PBR sees teams compete over multiple weekends around the country, bringing the thrills of Texas-style rodeo from coast to coast.

The Austin Gamblers claimed the 2024 PBR championship and are vying to become the first franchise to become two-time champions.

“Ultimately, to be the coach of a great group of young athletes is really special, and I don’t take it lightly,” Gamblers head coach Michael Gaffney, a bull riding veteran, said to MySA. “I will say at times it’s difficult because what do you teach seasoned professionals? Our crew and our roster of guys on the Austin Gamblers, if I count up the world championships we have, it’s probably surpassing the other teams by a lot.”

The team itself is made up of bull riders from all around the world, including five Brazilians and Callum Miller of Australia. Rodeo and bull riding may have spread across the world, but coming to Texas has given the Gamblers a chance to compete in the biggest arenas and in front of crowds obsessed with rodeo.

While the Gamblers do not train as you would at a football practice, the majority of them live north of Dallas-Fort Worth and have their own ranches where they train on bucking bulls. Kasel, the only native Texan on the Gamblers, told MySA that he raises bucking bulls for a living, and it’s a workout just feeding them and moving them around, let alone climbing onto their backs. 

“Coming over to Texas and the USA, rodeo and bull riding, this is where it’s the biggest in the world,” Miller said to MySA. “It’s the biggest stage we can be on, so it’s always an achievement and a goal to be in the top level and be able to compete against the top guys and make a name for ourselves.”

In a city already filled with the likes of the Texas Longhorns, Austin FC, Round Rock Express and the Austin Spurs, the Austin Gamblers only add to the collection of high-level sports franchises. For anyone wanting to see the Gamblers in action, this weekend’s Gambler Days at the Moody Center is the best opportunity. The competition runs through Sunday, August 23, so get your tickets now.

“Expect the unexpected,” Gaffney said to MySA. “It’s the best of bull riding. You’re going to see two great athletes. An animal athlete and a cowboy athlete go head to head for eight seconds.”