January 3, 2025 Nolan Hughes

Staff changes by Matt Russo and Andrew Anderson were the highlights of Friday’s PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands roster reveal show on BowlTV, in which the eight teams each representing a major bowling ball manufacturer announced their initial rosters for the 2025 season.

The PBA Tour stars, who happen to be close friends off the lanes, opted to switch brands this offseason after enjoying successful 2024 seasons.

Russo finished a career-high seventh in points and won the PBA Scorpion Championship on DV8 staff last season. The two-handed lefty now joins two-time reigning Player of the Year EJ Tackett on MOTIV.

“Matt is a phenomenal addition to the team,” MOTIV manager Brett Spangler said. “We needed a lefty, so to get the highest left-hander in (2024) points is absolutely incredible. Matt is a proven winner at the highest level and he’s only now realizing his potential. I expect great things for MOTIV and Matt in the coming years.”

Anderson, who won the PBA Roth/Holman Doubles Championship with Kris Prather and swept both PBA Elite League MVP awards, spent the last three seasons with MOTIV. He switched to 900 Global this winter, joining Sean Rash atop the Storm subsidiary’s hierarchy.

“A former Player of the Year, Andrew is super pumped to be on the squad, and we are excited to have him,” 900 Global manager Gary Hulsenberg said. “We had to go out and get him. We needed to add that talent.”

Roto Grip’s additions of Justin Knowles and Kevin McCune were the other two major changes between brands. Roto Grip manager Chris Schlemer found his lefty in Knowles, and added a 25-year-old major champion in McCune.

“Even though Kevin’s rev rate is a little bit higher (than his dad’s), he has versatility,” Roto Grip manager Chris Schlemer said. “He can throw it hard and straight when he has to, but he's also not scared to get in and wheel it.”

Several players switched teams within the same parent company, such as reigning Rookie of the Year Nate Purches moving from Brunswick to DV8 and Richie Teece sliding from Storm to 900 Global.

Players formerly staffed by Columbia 300, Track and Radical moved to different branches of the Brunswick tree as well.

Each team’s complete roster can be found at the bottom of this story.

 

Each team was able to roster between six and 15 of their staff players who have PBA Tour priority status. Teams will be able to add, drop and trade players between Feb. 17-23.

Any player who gains priority status during the season — which would happen if a player won their first career title — will be automatically added to that team’s roster.

In addition to building upon the inherent team chemistry within each brand’s staff, the revamped format heightens the longstanding rivalries between the brands.

The PBA Elite League now features a point system comparable to Formula 1’s Driver and Constructor standings. It is the same point system used to determine PBA Playoffs standings.

Teams will earn points in each singles title event through April’s PBA Tournament of Champions. Points are weighted based on the duration and prestige of the title event.

An additional strategic element further elevates the PBA Elite League: Before each event, managers will be responsible for selecting five players to start for their team. Only the points earned by those five players will count in the PBA Elite League.

All teams will compete in the PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands Championship on April 26-27. Teams will be seeded for the extended stepladder by their season-long point totals.

The No. 4-8 seeds will compete April 26 (3 p.m. ET on FS1) with the winning team advancing to meet the top three seeds in the final round on April 27 (Noon ET on FOX).

All matches will utilize the baker format as seen in previous iterations of the PBA Elite League. The stepladder will feature single-game matches culminating with a Race-to-Two championship match.

The champions will earn $100,000 to be allocated to its players by the manufacturer.

During the regular season, players will be able to use any product-registered bowling ball available to them. For example, Roto Grip players can use Storm and 900 Global equipment; Hammer players can use Brunswick, Ebonite, Track, DV8, Radical and Columbia 300 equipment.

In the PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands Championship, however, players will be limited to their single brand’s equipment. To continue the previous example, Roto Grip players will only be able to throw Roto Grip equipment in the finals — not Storm or 900 Global.

Furthermore, since not all brands produce a urethane bowling ball, no player may use urethane equipment during finals matches. The tournament director may grant an exception for equipment used exclusively for spares.

Team Rosters

900 Global

Andrew Anderson, Richie Teece, Mitch Hupé, Sean Rash, Ryan Barnes, Chase Nadeau, Chris Sloan, Chris Barnes

Managed by Gary Hulsenberg, Storm Vice President of Marketing

Brunswick

Packy Hanrahan, Graham Fach, Jason Sterner, Dom Barrett, Nate Stubler, Tim Foy Jr., Andrew Hall, Gary Faulkner Jr., Parker Bohn III

Managed by Corey Dykstra, CEO of Brunswick Bowling Products

DV8

Matt Ogle, Keven Williams, Deo Benard, Hayden Stippich, Nate Purches, Cam Crowe, Bailey Mavrick, Ryan Ciminelli

Managed by Billy Orlikowski, Brunswick Director of Consumer Product Management

Ebonite

Jake Peters, Matt Sanders, Tommy Jones, Jakob Butturff, Cristian Azcona, AJ Chapman, Brandon Runk, Kim Bolleby

Managed by Bugsy Kelly, Brunswick Director of Marketing

Hammer

Marshall Kent, Bill O’Neill, Zach Wilkins, Boog Krol, Tom Daugherty, Eric Jones, Tomas Käyhkö, Shawn Maldonado

Managed by Brian Graham, Brunswick VP of Consumer Products

MOTIV

EJ Tackett, Matt Russo, Tom Smallwood, AJ Johnson, Sam Cooley, Sean Lavery-Spahr, Nathan Bohr, Dick Allen, Ronnie Russell, Santtu Tahvanainen (granted injury exemption)

Managed by Brett Spangler, MOTIV Tour Rep

Roto Grip

Anthony Simonsen, Justin Knowles, Kris Prather, BJ Moore, Stu Williams, DJ Archer, Kevin McCune, Wes Malott

Managed by Chris Schlemer, Roto Grip Brand Manager

Storm

Jason Belmonte, Kyle Troup, Jesper Svensson, Chris Via, DeeRonn Booker, Patrick Dombrowski, Kyle Sherman, François Lavoie, Darren Tang, Thomas Larsen 

Managed by Tyler Jensen, President of Storm Products, Inc.