PUEBLO, Colo. – PBR Teams, the groundbreaking bull riding league formed in 2022, today announced the draft eligible and draft protected riders for the first-ever Expansion Draft when the league’s two new teams, the New York Mavericks and Oklahoma Wildcatters, will begin to assemble their rosters for competition in the 2024 Camping World Team Series which begins in July.

Each original team was able to protect three riders, making those riders ineligible from selection by the Wildcatters, who have the No. 1 pick, and the Mavericks, who own the second and third picks. The Expansion Draft is a snake draft. Oklahoma will select 1/4/5/8/9/12, while New York will select 2/3/6/7/10/11.

The field of eligible riders includes the 35 riders who were not protected along with more than 100 Unrestricted Free Agents, including those riders who were previously part of one of the league’s eight founding teams’ Reserve Rosters.

The 2024 PBR Teams Expansion Draft will be held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 10, 2024, at a to-be-announced location, when the Mavericks and Wildcatters will be able to select up to six riders. Every team competing in the league’s Camping World Team Series can field a roster of seven Protected Riders, with two pre-season Injured Reserve designations also available. Beginning on June 3, teams will be able to populate their maximum five-rider Reserve Roster.

"The expansion of PBR Teams after two seasons is a testament to our league’s immediate success,” said PBR CEO and Commissioner Sean Gleason. “Team competition has proven to be highly engaging to the casual fan and easier for sports media to cover. Team rivalries are forming. Local fan bases are growing. The excitement building for our third season of five-on-five bull riding games leading to a Teams championship is palpable.”

The complete list of available Unrestricted Free Agents in the Expansion Draft is available here.

The remaining available contingent of riders is comprised of those athletes who did not receive one of their team’s three draft protected designations.

Each rider who is now Expansion Draft eligible was assigned a draft valuation as determined by a vote of the General Managers from the league’s eight founding teams and certified by PBR Teams Commissioner Gleason and the League office. If drafted by one of the two expansion teams, the team to which the rider was initially signed will receive that many lottery balls which will be used to determine the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming 2024 New Rider Draft. Only those riders ranked inside a team’s Top 4 were assigned a valuation, with the No. 1 rider valued at 24 lottery balls, No. 2 rider at 12 balls, No. 3 rider at 6 balls and No. 4 rider at 1 ball, which are indicated in the parentheses below

Riders who are draft eligible and are currently on a team roster are as follows:

Arizona Ridge Riders

Draft Eligible: Luciano De Castro (24), Vitor Losnake, Keyshawn Whitehorse and Chase Dougherty.

Draft Protected: Eduardo Aparecido, Nick Tetz and Colten Fritzlan.

Austin Gamblers

Expansion Draft Eligible: Austin Richardson (6)*, Rafael dos Santos, Ramon de Lima, Lucas Divino and Ezekiel Mitchell

Draft Protected: Jose Vitor Leme, Dalton Kasel and Cort McFadden

Carolina Cowboys

Expansion Draft Eligible: Josh Frost (1), Tate Pollmeier, Derek Kolbaba and Arthur Antonialle

Draft Protected: Cooper Davis, Sage Kimzey and Daylon Swearingen

Florida Freedom

Expansion Draft Eligible: Casey Roberts (1), Alex Cerqueira, Joao Lucas Campos and Conner Halverson

Draft Protected: Caden Bunch, Thiago Salgado and Elizmar Jeremias

Kansas City Outlaws

Expansion Draft Eligible: Wingson Henrique da Silva (12), Sandro Batista (6), Leonardo Castro Ferreira, Bob Mitchell and Marcus Mast*

Draft Protected: Cassio Dias, Julio Cesar Marques and Koltin Hevalow

Missouri Thunder:

Expansion Draft Eligible: Briggs Madsen (1), Paulo Rossetto, Eduardo Matos and Trace Redd

Draft Protected: Boudreaux Campbell, Andrew Alvidrez and Felipe Furlan

Nashville Stampede

Expansion Draft Eligible: Kaique Pacheco (24), Silvano Alves (1), Chase Outlaw*, Dener Barbosa and Mason Taylor

Draft Protected: Alan de Souza, Kaiden Loud and Jess Lockwood

Texas Rattlers

Expansion Draft Eligible: Braidy Randolph (1), Brady Oleson, Daniel Keeping and Eli Vastbinder

Draft Protected: Joao Ricardo Vieira, Brady Fielder and Cody Jesus

* Denotes a rider with a pre-season IR designation. Such riders must remain on IR during (and are thus ineligible to compete in) the first three 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series events.

During the Expansion Draft, if an existing team rider has been selected, that respective team’s roster will lock (teams can build out their roster over free agency period), and the remaining riders regardless of draft protection status will be ineligible to be drafted. Any founding team who has a rider taken during the Expansion Draft will be afforded a compensatory pick amongst the pool of unrestricted free agents. The order of compensatory picks will be determined by the order of when the existing team riders were drafted by an expansion team. The compensatory picks will take place immediately following the Expansion Draft.

Those riders selected in the Expansion Draft will remain on the roster for the New York Mavericks or Oklahoma Wildcatters for at least the first two events of the season unless they are traded.

In 2024, the PBR Camping World Team Series will hold 12 regular-season events, including 10 team-hosted homestands and two neutral site events.

The expanded season, set to begin on July 12-14 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, will then conclude with a reformatted four-day, progressive elimination Championship tournament in Las Vegas. Two teams will now need to ride their way into the title-deciding PBR Teams Championship at T-Mobile Arena from October 18-20 and two will go home when the four lowest-ranked teams (No. 7 to No. 10) face off at South Point Hotel & Casino in the one-day Ride-In Round on October 17.

For more information on the 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series, and to purchase tickets to one of the league’s upcoming events, visit PBR.com.

Photo courtesy of Todd Brewer/Bull Stock Media