This ain't no bull: No. 1 ranked Austin Gamblers gear up for PBR Gambler Days

A lacerated kidney. A torn ACL. A fractured leg.

Broken ribs. Reconstructive elbow surgery. Groin surgery — twice.

Bull rider Dalton Kasel has suffered all these injuries and more, but just like his fellow Austin Gamblers, he remains undeterred.

"I keep coming back because I love it," Kasel said. "This is my passion. It's something that I truly love, and I've been extremely blessed with just having a talent to do it. None of my injuries have been something that I haven't been able to overcome and come back better from."

Kasel is one of 11 members of the Austin Gamblers, a Professional Bull Riders Inc. team. Though PBR has been around since 1992, the Gamblers and seven other teams were founded just last year for a new PBR Team Series.

The series was an innovation within bull riding, which has almost always operated as an individual sport. Now, even though it's still one rider on one bull in the arena at a time, competitors have a team for which to win points.

And the Gamblers are looking forward to a special competition Friday through Sunday in Austin.

"The hope was to create more excitement, create teams for fans in different markets to get behind ... really wanting to take advantage and leverage the popularity of team sports in the U.S. and add that to an already exciting sport," said JJ Gottsch, the Gamblers' CEO and general manager.

Entering the arena as a team

PBR Team Series matches are five-on-five games, Gottsch said. Judges take the aggregate score for a team's five rides, and the team with the highest score wins. Scores are given only if a rider stays on the bull for a minimum of eight seconds.

"A perfect example is let's say that we get two qualified rides ... and (the other team) got two rides; it's our two scores combined against their two scores combined," Gottsch said.

The other members of the PBR Team Series are the Arizona Ridge Riders in Glendale, Ariz.; the Carolina Cowboys in Greensboro, N.C.; the Kansas City Outlaws in Kansas City, Mo.; the Missouri Thunder in Ridgedale, Mo.; the Nashville Stampede in Nashville, Tenn.; the Oklahoma Freedom in Oklahoma City; and the Texas Rattlers in Fort Worth. The Gamblers are currently the No. 1 team.

The Gamblers, owned by Egon and Abby Durban, are coached by PBR legend and former world champion Michael Gaffney and assistant Adriano Moraes, PBR’s first world champion.

All teams chose members through a five-round inaugural draft of roughly 200 registered PBR riders last year. Another draft took place in May. The 2022 draft landed Kasel a spot with the Kansas City Outlaws, but he later was traded to the Gamblers — though he lives in Dublin, southwest of Fort Worth, not Austin.

Kasel said none of the Gamblers is from Austin.

"We have a guy from North Carolina. We have a guy from West Texas," Kasel said. "We have a guy from Dallas, Texas, and then we have four other guys or five other guys that are from Brazil. We have a combination of the best bull riders all over the world."

Kasel said all the Gamblers — the others are Jose Vitor Leme, Austin Richardson, Lucas Divino, Ezekiel Mitchell, Ramon de Lima, Adriano Salgado, Jean Fernandes Pereira, Cort McFadden, Claudio Montanha Jr. and Rafael dos Santos — are friends and participate in team-building exercises. When they are together in the Austin area, they practice at Scruggs Bucking Bulls in Thrall, just east of Taylor in Williamson County.

It's a far cry from how Kasel had competed as a solo rider ever since he was 13 years old. At that age, Kasel found himself itching to enter the world of bull riding. In fact, when he watched football with his dad, he wasn't excited about the game, he said. He was looking forward to the bull riding that would air afterward.

Kasel's professional career began in 2019 when he won PBR's Rookie of the Year award. In 2020, he ranked among the top 40 riders in the world despite several injuries, including his two groin surgeries. For the past few years, Kasel said, he's maintained a spot in the top five or six.

Currently, he ranks fifth. Leme is second, and de Lima is 10th.

Braving the bull

The Gamblers also have teammates of a different breed: bulls.

Kasel said some people have misconceptions about the bulls' living conditions, but the animals "get treated better than any of the human athletes do." They receive supplements and vitamins and are specifically bred for riding, Kasel said.

"There's nothing that you can make a bull do," Kasel said. "You can't make a 1,500- (to) 2,000-pound animal do what you want. They have to do it themselves. It's really similar to horse racing. You can't just get any horse and think you're going to go win the Kentucky Derby. There's a science that goes into it and the breeding and stuff, and it's quite similar to that."

Just as PBR ranks riders, it keeps standings for bulls. Ridin' Solo currently tops the rankings, followed by Flapjack, UTZ BesTex Legend, Cool Whip and Ricky Vaughn.

Sometimes before climbing onto the back of a bull, Kasel can't help but think about his safety, despite his love for the sport. He has a wife, whom he met as a teenager at a bull riding camp, and a 2-year-old daughter to take care of at home.

"It's something that (my wife) and I talk about, and she leaves it ultimately up to me to make the decision whether I'm able to or not because I know my body," Kasel said. "But she also kind of opened my eyes at sometimes where I think I can do something I shouldn't be doing."

Getting ready for Gambler Days

Kasel will make his first appearance at the PBR Gambler Days event starting Friday at the University of Texas' Moody Center. The second annual event welcomes attendees into a "Western extravaganza," according to PBR's website, complete with music, giveaways and, of course, bull riding.

Friday will be college night, with discounted $24 tickets for students and appearances by UT's costumed mascot, Hook ’Em, and the Longhorn Alumni Band. The Gamblers will compete against the Outlaws beginning at 7:45 p.m.

The Rattlers will be the opponents at 6:45 p.m. Saturday, and the Freedom will enter the arena at 1:45 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available on Ticketmaster and the Moody Center website.

"Over there in Austin, it's a whole different set of people, and they love their sports," Kasel said. "It doesn't matter if it's football or basketball, soccer, now bull riding; they get behind it 100%, and I know it really helps the rider shine and be the best that they can be. I'm just excited for the energy that Austin brings."

PBR Gambler Days

When: 7:45 p.m. Friday, 6:45 p.m. Saturday, 1:45 p.m. Sunday

Where: Moody Center at the University of Texas

Opponents: Kansas City Outlaws on Friday, Texas Rattlers on Saturday, Oklahoma Freedom on Sunday

Tickets: Ticketmaster, Moody Center websites

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: This ain't no bull: Austin Gamblers gear up for PBR Gambler Days