Fort Worth's own bull riding franchise is back on home dirt this weekend, as the Texas Rattlers host their annual Rattler Days homestand at Dickies Arena starting Friday. The three-day event runs October 2 through October 4, with the Rattlers facing the Oklahoma Wildcatters on Friday, the Austin Gamblers on Saturday and the Arizona Ridge Riders on Sunday. Each matchup pits five riders per team against five bulls, with the team posting the best cumulative score across the matchups winning the night.
The homestand arrives at a pivotal moment for the Rattlers, who sit fifth in the 10-team Professional Bull Riders Team Series standings with a 12-11 record, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Fort Worth's opponents this weekend are bunched close by in the standings: the Austin Gamblers rank fourth at 13-10, the Arizona Ridge Riders sit sixth at 10-13, and the Oklahoma Wildcatters are eighth at 9-14. Atop the league, the Missouri Thunder and Nashville Stampede are tied at 16-7, with Missouri holding the points edge for the top spot.
Former Champs Looking to Climb
The Rattlers know what it takes to peak at the right time. Fort Worth won the 2023 PBR Teams Championship, defeating the Austin Gamblers 355.25 to 265.25 in Las Vegas to become the first professional sports team in the city's history to capture a national title — a milestone Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and the City Council formally recognized in September 2024, according to The Business Press. That championship run included a perfect 3-0 record on home dirt during the 2023 Rattler Days homestand, per PBR, a reminder of how much a hot weekend in Fort Worth can shift a season.
Heading into this year's homestand, the Rattlers enter with one of the league's top individual talents. Rider Brady Fielder ranks third in the league's individual MVP race this season, per the Star-Telegram's report. Fielder and fellow rider Daniel Keeping signed multi-year contracts ahead of the 2026 season, marking the franchise's first long-term core player signings, according to Dickies Arena.
A Coach Who Changed the Sport's Safety Rules
Leading the Rattlers is head coach Cody Lambert, a PBR co-founder whose influence extends well beyond Fort Worth. Lambert invented the protective vest now mandated across professional bull riding after witnessing the fatal 1989 injury of his friend Lane Frost at Cheyenne Frontier Days, according to information compiled from PBR's rider profile. He also served as PBR's Director of Livestock for more than two decades before taking over as the Rattlers' head coach in 2022, the same source notes.
Under PBR Team Series rules, coaches like Lambert do not simply send out their best rider at will — they receive pre-assigned bull matchings before each game, deciding strategically which of their five riders to pair against specific bulls, according to 360West Magazine. Rides are scored on an eight-second count, with points awarded for both rider control and the difficulty of the bull. That structure is part of what sets the PBR Team Series apart from traditional individual bull riding, which the league converted into a team format when it launched the series in 2022.
Big Business Behind the Chutes
The Rattlers compete as one of the league's founding franchises, with Ariat as title sponsor and Bass Pro Shops among the team's sponsors. The league itself has grown quickly since its 2022 launch, expanding from eight original teams to 10 by adding the Oklahoma Wildcatters and New York Mavericks.
That growth has come with serious corporate backing. In February 2025, TKO Group Holdings — the parent company of UFC and WWE — completed its $3.25 billion acquisition of PBR, along with IMG and On Location, from Endeavor Group Holdings, according to a filing with the SEC. The deal brought PBR's roughly 200 annual live events under TKO's global sports umbrella, the filing states.
What's at Stake for the Playoff Picture
Every point matters now. Each of the league's 10 franchises hosts an annual three-day homestand during the regular season, and this weekend's results in Fort Worth will factor directly into playoff seeding for the PBR Teams Championship, set for November 6-8 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, according to PBR Teams Championship. The top three seeds after the regular season earn a first-round bye in Las Vegas, where all 10 teams will compete in a progressive elimination format.
Dickies Arena, the Rattlers' home venue, is the setting for the homestand. Friday's game starts at 7:45 p.m., Saturday's at 6:45 p.m., and Sunday's at 1:45 p.m., with tickets available through Ticketmaster, PBR.com, by phone, or at the Dickies Arena box office, per the Star-Telegram.
