OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Teams today announced that the league will hold the 2024 Expansion Draft in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum on April 10.

During the Expansion Draft, which will get underway at 6:00 p.m. CDT, the two new teams competing in the PBR Camping World Team Series, the New York Mavericks and Oklahoma Wildcatters, will begin to assemble their rosters, with each able to select up to six riders.

Oklahoma City’s own Oklahoma Wildcatters holds the No. 1 overall pick in the Expansion Draft. Under the snake draft format, Oklahoma will select 1/4/5/8/9/12, while New York will select 2/3/6/7/10/11.

Immediately following the Expansion Draft, the league will hold the New Rider Draft Lottery. With a highly talented group of young riders eligible for team competition, including 18-year-old John Crimber, who is now No. 2 in the Unleash The Beast Standings, along with fellow young guns Clay Guiton and Marco Rizzo, the highly anticipated New Rider Draft Lottery will determine from a draw of 100 ping pong balls which of the league’s now 10 teams will have the first pick in the 2024 New Rider Draft to be held later this Spring.

“We’re thrilled to be hosting the Expansion Draft for PBR’s newest teams here at The Cowboy,” said Jeff Ewing, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. “As the home of PBR’s Heroes & Legends, I can’t think of a better place to celebrate this exciting next step in PBR’s expansion.”

“The launch of PBR Teams in 2022 has been successful beyond our highest expectations,” said PBR CEO and Commissioner Sean Gleason. “Our first expansion draft for building the rosters of two new teams is another highlight for fans and the league as we prepare for another season of bull riding games bringing fans unpredictable drama and excitement.”

The PBR Teams Expansion Draft, which will also be broadcast live on Cowboy Channel and PBR RidePass on Pluto TV, is the latest marquee event for PBR to be held at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

In 2022, the two organizations united to create the PBR Hall of Fame at the historic Oklahoma venue. The PBR Hall of Fame opened to the public in 2023, which then spurred the creation of a traveling version of the exhibit. The interactive PBR Hall of Fame, which launched in January 2024, can be seen at all PBR Unleash The Beast events nationwide.

As part of the new relationship, PBR also relocated the organization’s prestigious Heroes & Legends induction ceremony to Oklahoma City and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum beginning in 2023. The 2024 Heroes & Legends Ceremony will be held on Thursday, July 11, prior to the opening night of competition for Wildcatter Days on July 12-14 at Paycom Center. The 2024 class of inductees will be announced at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum prior to the Expansion Draft.

During the PBR Teams Expansion Draft, the Mavericks and Wildcatters will be able to select from the 35 riders who were not protected by the eight original teams, along with more than 100 Unrestricted Free Agents, including those riders who were previously part of a Reserve Roster for one of the original teams.

Those riders who were not protected by one of the original teams are:

Luciano De Castro, Vitor Losnake, Keyshawn Whitehorse and Chase Dougherty of the Arizona Ridge Riders

Austin Richardson, Rafael dos Santos, Ramon de Lima, Lucas Divino and Ezekiel Mitchell of the Austin Gamblers

Josh Frost, Tate Pollmeier, Derek Kolbaba and Arthur Antonialle of the Carolina Cowboys

Casey Roberts, Alex Cerqueira, Joao Lucas Campos and Conner Halverson of the Florida Freedom

Wingson Henrique da Silva, Sandro Batista, Leonardo Castro Ferreira, Bob Mitchell and Marcus Mast of the Kansas City Outlaws

Briggs Madsen, Paulo Rossetto, Eduardo Matos and Trace Redd of the Missouri Thunder

Kaique Pacheco, Silvano Alves, Chase Outlaw, Dener Barbosa and Mason Taylor of the Nashville Stampede

Braidy Randolph, Brady Oleson, Daniel Keeping and Eli Vastbinder of the Texas Rattlers.

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

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 a free agency period), and the remaining riders, regardless of draft protection status, will be ineligible to be drafted. Any founding team that 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 2024 season unless they are traded.

The 2024 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 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 Bull Stock Media