The BBQ World Cup organizers reveal the inspiration behind the event and how it will elevate the entire barbecue community.
NOTE: This article originally appeared in The Smoke Sheet. Be sure to take a moment to sign up for The Smoke Sheet newsletter here and get all of the latest BBQ and grilling news.
A new era of competition BBQ is upon us. After a soft launch at the end of 2025, the organizers of the BBQ World Cup have officially revealed the full scope of their ambitions.
The BBQ World Cup is scheduled for April 2027 in Las Vegas, where 100 teams will compete for a $1 million championship purse, the largest prize ever offered at a single BBQ competition. It’s the kind of number that generates serious buzz across the circuit and gets people to change their competition calendars. Full venue details, hotels, ticketing, and more will be announced this coming April.
How the World Cup Came Together
The BBQ World Cup was co-founded by sports marketing executive Scott Erdmann and event marketing strategist Shannon Pruitt — two people whose careers have been spent building huge platforms around competitions.
Erdmann has held leadership roles with the Las Vegas Raiders, Dallas Cowboys, and Florida Panthers. Pruitt is the former Global CMO of Stagwell’s Brand Performance Network, where she built fan and media ecosystems for American Idol, America’s Got Talent, FIFA World Cup, Formula 1, and more.
Erdmann said the idea for BBQ World Cup came from attending the Texas BBQ Shootout at AT&T Stadium in 2024, where he watched pitmasters spend thousands of dollars competing purely out of love for the craft — with little financial return to show for it. He recognized that a transformative prize could bridge the gap between the backyard enthusiasts and the seasoned pros.
“It’s a little bit of a parallel path of like what World Series of Poker did,” Erdmann said. “Hopefully this is something that invigorates and gets people excited about cooking.”
The American Idol of Barbecue
Pruitt brings a storyteller’s instinct to the project. Her years working on American Idol directly shaped the “Road to 1 Million” concept. This will be “season one” of a journey designed to surface unknown talent and introduce the world to big-league competitors who aren’t known outside of BBQ. Just as Idol created a pathway for unknown singers like Kelly Clarkson to become massive household names, the Road to the BBQ World Cup is designed to give every competitor a shot at a world stage.
“No one knew who Kelly Clarkson was,” Pruitt said. “What we’re trying to do is create more of a pathway for everybody. That’s the American Idol connection — this experience and opportunity to be part of the storytelling and what we’re calling the Road to the BBQ World Cup.”
The emphasis on storytelling isn’t just a branding exercise. The goal is to capture competitors’ stories in real time at every stop on the qualifying circuit, rather than waiting for a polished broadcast to tell them later.
“It’s not just about telling them in a big sexy TV show,” Pruitt said. “It’s about telling them more broadly — even the stories happening in the moment on site… those are the things that make this, and you do fall in love with people in different ways for different reasons.”
The Road to Vegas
Throughout 2026, 30+ qualifying events worldwide will send their top finishers to the Finals. Currently, 25 U.S. qualifying events are confirmed — from marquee events like the DC BBQ Battle to beloved regional competitions like Grand American BBQ World Championship (NY) and Praise the Lard (IL). (Erdmann said they are working to make the American Royal, The Jack, and Memphis in May qualifiers as well.)
The international footprint is equally ambitious, with 12 confirmed qualifiers across six countries — Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, and the U.K. Top finishers advance as representatives of their community and country, with qualifying spots varying by event format.
The newly announced qualifying events will no doubt have many teams sign up that would not have participated otherwise. AJ Garza of Gods Country BBQ, who was one of the first qualifiers for BWC, told the Wise Guys BBQ podcast that he wasn’t planning to compete at Slab-O-Rama in January but entered after it became a qualifier.
Supporting the competition is a Pitmaster Competition Committee of 13 respected competitors and BBQ entrepreneurs — including Christie Vanover of Girls Can Grill, Bill Gillespie of Smokin’ Hoggz BBQ, and Joe Pearce of Slap’s BBQ — helping shape the integrity and competitive standards of the inaugural season.
“I am super stoked about this,” Vanover said. “I feel like competition barbecue was starting to see a slight decline. And when the founders came and lit a spark for what competition barbecue could be, it got so many of us excited. I was gracious and was really humbled to be asked if I wanted to have a seat at the table, and I said, ‘Absolutely, I would.’”
More Than a Contest: BBQ United and BBQ World Expo
The BBQ World Cup is one part of a broader vision called BBQ United. Erdmann and Pruitt aim to make this a “global hub” for the barbecue community. Beyond competition tracking, BBQ United is set to include an interactive map and directory to connect and support catering companies, food trucks, and restaurants worldwide. It will also feature articles and videos about the barbecue community and industry.
Alongside the Finals, the just-announced BBQ World Expo will “bring together brands, pitmasters, live-fire experiences, music, equipment, education, and community programming,” helping transform Las Vegas into a full-weekend destination for BBQ fans of all kinds, not just competitors and their families.
A New Direction
Competition barbecue has faced significant headwinds in recent years, including rising ingredient and entry costs, stagnant participation, and difficulty attracting new audiences beyond the core community.
The BBQ World Cup is an ambitious response to all of that: a massive celebration of the craft, built to crown a world champion and reignite excitement around a beloved tradition. If it becomes a massive annual event with a continued $1 million prize, expect participation in competition events worldwide to skyrocket.
Why We Require You To Sign In Before You Can Post Comments
Before you can post a comment or question you must sign into our commenting partner, Disqus. This is helps make sure everyone hanging around the grill is civil. We do not tolerate nastiness, racism, porn, inappropriate language, or attacks on others. All comments are the property of AmazingRibs.com and we reserve the right to quote them, edit them, delete them, and block people from making future comments.
Please leave comments and questions on the page devoted to the same subject so others can see them and our answers when they are reading about that subject. You must enable JavaScript to use the comments section, and you must accept cookies to post comments. Note that the software that runs Disqus is different from the Pitmaster Club so members need to sign into that separately.
Moderators