April 28, 2025 Nolan Hughes

The first postseason title event of the 2025 PBA Tour is set to get underway at Strobl Arena in Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Mich.

The PBA Playoffs feature the top 12 players in competition points this season.

EJ Tackett led the tour with 34,690 points — more than second place Andrew Anderson (18,120) and third place Jason Belmonte (15,365) combined. Graham Fach qualified fourth with 15,181 points, earning the coveted fourth seed.

Tackett, Anderson, Belmonte and Fach each earned a bye to the quarterfinals.

Tim Foy Jr., Chris Via, Jesper Svensson, Ethan Fiore, Anthony Simonsen, Jakob Butturff, Ryan Barnes and Kyle Troup round out the PBA Playoffs field.

Since the first PBA Playoffs in 2019, only four players have competed in all six events: Tackett, Troup, Simonsen and Svensson. (Belmonte qualified for all six, but opted out in 2021.)

Bill O’Neill’s five-year streak of advancing — not only the PBA Playoffs but the quarterfinals — ended after he finished 16th in points this season. Matt Ogle, defending champion Boog Krol, Kevin McCune and O’Neill were the first four players to miss the cut.

Troup is the only past PBA Playoffs champion remaining in the field. He won the event in 2021 and 2022.

Simonsen has advanced to the quarterfinals three times, the semifinals twice and the championship in 2020.

Tackett and Svensson have reached the quarterfinals just twice each. In fact, Tackett has never made the semifinals, while Svensson capitalized on his lone semifinal appearance and made the championship match last season.

Barnes is the first rookie to advance to the PBA Playoffs.

Fiore, just 20 years, seven months and 13 days old as of the final day of the regular season, is the youngest player ever to qualify for the PBA Playoffs. He utilized his rookie eligibility last season.

Fiore became the fourth-youngest major champion when he won the PBA Players Championship earlier this month. He will face the youngest to win a major, Simonsen, in the opening match of the PBA Playoffs.

The Round of 12, quarterfinals and semifinals will be taped April 28-30 at Strobl Arena with airdates on FS1 over the next three weekends. All matches will utilize the Race-to-Two format.

The finalists will return for the live championship match, featuring a Race-to-Three format, on May 24.

The full TV schedule is available here.

PBA Playoffs TV Schedule

Round 1 - airing May 3 at 7pm ET | FS1
No. 8 Ethan Fiore vs. No. 9 Anthony Simonsen
No. 5 Tim Foy Jr. vs. No. 12 Kyle Troup

Round 1 - airing May 4 at 7pm ET | FS1
No. 7 Jesper Svensson vs. No. 10 Jakob Butturff
No. 6 Chris Via vs. No. 11 Ryan Barnes

Quarterfinals - airing May 10 at 2pm ET | FS1
No. 1 EJ Tackett vs. Fiore/Simonsen
No. 4 Graham Fach vs. Foy/Troup

Quarterfinals - airing May 11 at 6:30pm ET | FS1
No. 2 Andrew Anderson vs. Svensson/Butturff
No. 3 Jason Belmonte vs. Via/Barnes

Semifinals - airing May 18 at 12pm ET | FS1
Tackett/Fiore/Simonsen vs. Fach/Foy/Troup
Anderson/Svensson/Butturff vs. Belmonte/Via/Barnes

Championship - airing May 24 at 2:30pm ET | FOX (live)