Prize Money

The entry fee for each event is $23 per person, per event. $16 of that goes into the purse⁽¹⁾ and is paid back to the best performing contestants in each go-round⁽²⁾. The actual amount of the purse paid out is determined by how many persons or teams enter an event and how many obtain a qualifying score. Cash prizes are typically paid to the top 4 placements in a 40-27-20-13% split.

If fewer participants receive a score, each placement will receive a higher percentage of the purse. If no one completes the event in a given go-round, the prize money rolls over (forward or backward) to the other day of competition. If no one completes a given event either day, the prize money for that event goes into the purse for the IGRA Finals Rodeo. There are other rules and variables involved, but on this page we will try to keep it simple. You can see the full split-out table in the complete IGRA rules

Let's say, for example, on our first go-round, we have 10 men bull riders, so the men's bull ride event has a $160 purse to start. If only 3 riders stay on the bull for the required 6 seconds and receive scores, then we only have 3 qualifying rides eligible for the purse money.

The original purse, in our example, would be split 3 ways. According to IGRA rules, if there are 3 qualifying rides, the 1st place rider gets 50% of the $160, 2nd place gets 30%, and 3rd place gets 20%. If on the second day, none of the 10 bull riders completes a ride, the $160 from the second day is split up in the same 50-30-20% proportions and given back to the riders who covered the first day.

"Added Prize Money" can be placed on top of the standard purse for any event or group of events by the hosting Rodeo Association.

Added prize money is generally placed on events that are expected to have few contestants. This is an incentive to encourage more contestants to compete in events that would tend to have small purses due to low turnout of contestants. Bull and Bronc riding is extremely dangerous and require very healthy, strong and experienced riders, so these events tend to attract small numbers of contestants. Such events as team roping and breakaway roping require very experienced riders as well as highly trained horses which can be very expensive to own and maintain. A good team roping horse can be worth tens of thousands of dollars, and you need two contestants to make up a team, as a result there are few team ropers competing in gay rodeo.

There are many different ways to pay out such money, but ASGRA has developed a system that awards "Added Prize Money" based on the combined⁽³⁾ scores for both go-rounds. In 2003, ASGRA advertised to pay the top 3 bull riders from both days of the rodeo $300 to 1st place, $200 to 2nd place, and $100 to 3rd place.

So in our little example here, the 1st place bull rider from the entire rodeo weekend gets $410 ($160 purse and $250 added), 2nd place receives $196, and 3rd place receives $114. Not exactly airfare from California is it?

If more persons receive a scoring ride, then the original $160 would be split more ways, but the ASGRA "Added Prize Money" still only supplements the highest 3 scorers for the weekend. If fewer persons score, then the original purse is split fewer ways so each winner gets more money from the purse; however, the "Added Prize Money" is fixed for each event and is not modified or increased if fewer persons score for the weekend. In other words, if we only have 2 scoring riders, the "Added Prize Money" for 3rd place is not awarded.

Got the picture? Yeah, right. So, don't worry about the complexities, that's the rodeo auditor's job. Just enjoy the show, root for your favorite cowboy or cowgirl, and have fun!

1. Purse: The pooled part of the contestant event entry fees used as prize money. By IGRA rules, $4 of each entry fee is retained to cover IGRA administrative and local rodeo costs, a Finals arena fund, and a special prize money fund for the annual IGRA Finals rodeo.
2. Go-round: A given event on a given day. The same event on a different day is another go-round. At a gay rodeo, there are two go-rounds; a full run of every event on Saturday and again on Sunday. In some cases, if there are a large number of contestants, you may see the same event run at different times on the same day, but this is still counted as a single go-round.
3. IGRA has devised a method to combine the scores over both go-rounds to award the event championship (and championship buckles) for each weekend rodeo. ASGRA's "Added Prize Money" is given to the top winners based on the method used to determine the buckle winners.