Since 2016, only four players have won the PBA Tour Championship—Kris Prather, Tom Daugherty, and two men who were at the National Bowling Stadium today: EJ Tackett and Jason Belmonte. Well, that didn’t change in 2025, as EJ Tackett claimed his 7th career major title during the PBA World Championship in Reno, Defeating Jason Belmonte in a thrilling 242-222 final.
In the first Stepladder Finals match on the 2025 Anthony 43-foot pattern, No. 5 seed BJ Moore faced his roommate for the past month on tour, David Krol. Moore advanced to the PBA World Championship by surpassing Jesper Svensson by just two pins, while Krol had yet to lose a championship round match in his career.
Both bowlers started at full throttle, rolling nine strikes during the first 11 frames before the commercial break. Moore opened with five consecutive strikes using the 900 Global Zen 25, while "Boog" Krol fired four strikes and two spares with Track Stealth Mode, putting him in the role of the pursuer.
After the break, Moore delivered another strike but slightly missed in the seventh frame, leaving a 10-pin spare, which he picked up. Meanwhile, Krol spared and then missed to the right in the eighth frame, leaving a 2-4-10 split. Moore responded with two more strikes, sealing the match. He handed his good friend Krol his first loss on TV with a convincing 258-203 victory.
In the second Stepladder match, BJ Moore faced No. 3 seed Tim Foy Jr., who is having a career-best season, making his fifth TV round appearance this year.
Foy Jr. chose to play seven boards further right than his opponent, using the Hammer Special Effect bowling ball. He started strong with three strikes, while Moore stuck with the 900 Global Zen 25, opening with two strikes but then missing twice before converting spares.
Foy Jr. responded with two spares of his own, keeping the match even. However, Moore made a critical error in the fifth frame, leaving a 6-7-10 split. After that, he switched to the 900 Global Origin but missed right by several boards, ending in a 1-2-4 spare, trailing the match by 27 pins heading into the commercial break. Sensing blood in the water, Foy Jr. returned with a strike but missed slightly in the seventh frame, settling for a spare. In response, Moore made another ball change to the IQ Tour Edition, but it resulted in yet another split, leaving him trailing by 41 pins with three frames remaining.
In the eighth frame, Moore converted a spare, while Foy Jr. struck twice, sealing the match. Foy Jr. claimed victory with a decisive 234-182 win.
With just two wins standing between him and his first PBA Tour title—and his first major—Foy Jr. faced two-time defending champion and two-time Player of the Year EJ Tackett. Tackett opened the match with a 4-7 spare, using the new Motiv Evoke Hysteria bowling ball. Fully aware of the high stakes, Foy Jr. started strong with two powerful strikes. In the second frame, Tackett missed left, leaving a 3-6 spare, but quickly recovered with a strike in the third. Meanwhile, Foy Jr. kept the momentum going, firing two more strikes to open with a four-bagger and take an early lead.
Tackett had opted to start the match on the left lane—the one that had given him the most trouble in his four TV round appearances on animal patterns—meaning he would finish on the right lane. However, after his fourth-frame shot, it became clear that the right lane was causing him even more problems. He missed left again, managing a Brooklyn strike, but the frustration was evident. Meanwhile, Foy Jr. stayed steady, converting a spare and adding another strike, building an unexpected and commanding 21 pin lead heading into the commercial break.
With five frames left to climb out of the deficit, Tackett struck in the sixth but struggled in the seventh, barely converting a strike. Then, in a dramatic turn, Foy Jr. made a costly mistake—leaving a split that erased his entire lead in an instant. Seizing the opportunity, Tackett doubled in the eighth and ninth frames, applying pressure. Foy Jr. then missed left in the ninth but picked up the spare, setting up a tense final frame.
Needing a clutch finish, Foy Jr. delivered three perfect strikes in the tenth, forcing Tackett to strike and knock down at least nine pins to win. What happened next was pure luck—Tackett missed left badly, but the ball found its way to a Brooklyn messenger strike anyway. Tackett then made another two strikes, sealing his victory 237-224.
For the title, EJ Tackett faced Jason Belmonte - the match all the crowd was waiting the most. Jason Belmonte, the all-time PBA WSOB leader with nine career titles at this event, secured the Roth/Holman PBA Doubles title with Bill O'Neill this year, two-handed superstar secured the top seed and was determined to win his first singles title in over two years, while winning it over the current best in the world would be a cherry on a top. But - no two hander won a single TV final here at the WSOB XVI
Jason Belmonte kicked off the title match using the Roto Grip Attention Star S2, opening with two strikes and two spares. Meanwhile, EJ Tackett was flawless through the first four frames, rolling strikes with his Motiv Evoke Hysteria.
Belmonte found his rhythm with a strike in the fifth frame, but Tackett missed left on the right lane, leaving a 4-6 split. He quickly recovered with a strike on the left lane. However, Belmonte soon encountered his own struggles on the right lane, as his ball skidded too far right, resulting in a 2-10 split and surrendering his slim two-pin lead.
Both players struck in the seventh frame, but Tackett held a commanding 30-pin advantage. He delivered another strong shot in the eighth, putting Belmonte in need of a miracle. A small one arrived in the ninth frame—Belmonte struck despite an awkward ball reaction, while Tackett missed left and had to settle for a 4-pin spare. With two strikes needed to shut out Belmonte—just as he had in the 2023 PBA World Championship—Tackett executed flawlessly again, sealing the win with a 242-222 victory. He claimed his third consecutive PBA World Championship major and back-to-back WSOB XVI titles.
The PBA World Championship was the pinnacle of the World Series of Bowling (WSOB) XVI, which featured 80 games across four different animal patterns.
Before the PBA World Championship, three international players from three different countries had already claimed PBA Tour titles in Reno. Sweden's Rasmus Edvall winning the Scorpion, Singapore's Darren Ong taking the win at Viper, and Tun Hakim winning Malaysia's first PBA Tour Title at Chameleon Championship, while EJ Tackett took his 26th career Tour title defending PBA Shark Championship.
The prize fund for the PBA World Championship winner was $100,000.
2025 PBA World Championship Stepladder Finals Scores:
Match 1: No. 5 BJ Moore - No. 4 David Krol, 258-203
Match 2: No. 5 BJ Moore - No. 3 Tim Foy Jr., 182-234
Match 3: No. 3 Tim Foy Jr. - No. 2 EJ Tackett, 224-237
Match 4: No. 2 EJ Tackett - No. 1 Jason Belmonte, 242-222
