OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – At the first-ever PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Teams Expansion Draft Wednesday evening in Oklahoma City at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, the league’s two expansion teams, the Oklahoma Wildcatters and New York Mavericks, assembled their initial rosters during six rounds of exhilarating selections punctuated with a blockbuster trade of the No. 1 overall pick.
“Less than 100 days before our third PBR Camping World Team Series season opens, our first Expansion Draft brought its share of drama and unexpected twists,” said PBR Teams Commissioner and CEO Sean Gleason. “We saw the Oklahoma Wildcatters and Austin Gamblers make some interesting moves, the New York Mavericks go with a young team including top Brazilian prospects and the Florida Freedom get the first pick in the New Rider Draft, likely uniting father and son with Paulo and John Crimber. On a night filled with big strategic moves and shocking surprises, we took another step in one of the most successful league launches in recent history.”
Holding the No. 1 overall pick, the Oklahoma Wildcatters selected 2018 PBR World Champion Kaique Pacheco (Itatiba, Brazil), who was the Nashville Stampede’s No. 1 pick and No. 2 overall, when the league launched in 2022.
Pacheco’s tenure on his new team, however, was brief. After Oklahoma used the No. 9 pick in the Expansion Draft to take former Stampede rider Dener Barbosa (Paulo de Faria, Brazil), they made a blockbuster trade with the Austin Gamblers. Via the trade, the Wildcatters received Cort McFadden (Novice, Texas) and Austin Richardson (Dallas, Texas) in exchange for Pacheco, now united with two-time PBR World Champion Jose Vitor Leme (Ribas do Rio Pardo, Brazil) and annual title contender Dalton Kasel (Muleshoe, Texas).
The trade was one of two that the Wildcatters and Gamblers would make during the 2024 Expansion Draft. During the compensatory pick portion of the evening, the Gamblers used their No. 6 pick to draft Hayden Harris (Tahlequah, Oklahoma) from the pool of unrestricted free agents. Immediately following the selection, Austin traded Harris to Oklahoma in exchange for Lucas Divino (Nova Crixas, Brazil), who the Wildcatters initially took from the Gamblers with their No. 8 overall pick in the Expansion Draft.
The New York Mavericks’ initial team was built by selecting Vitor Losnake (Bauru, Brazil) from the Arizona Ridge Riders and Leonardo Castro (Cassilandia, Brazil) from the Kansas City Outlaws with the No. 2 and No. 3 overall picks, respectively.
Leaning into the deep Brazilian roots of 2002 PBR World Champion and Assistant Coach Ednei Caminhas, later in the evening, the New York Mavericks surprised many when they selected unrestricted free agents Leandro Zampollo (Pirassununga, Brazil) No. 7 overall, Ederson Santos (Ilha Solteira, Brazil) No. 10 overall and Romario Leite (Brotas, Brazil) No. 11 overall.
When the dust settled, the rosters for the Oklahoma Wildcatters and New York Mavericks were assembled as follows:
Oklahoma Wildcatters:
No. 1 Pick: Kaique Pacheco (Nashville Stampede) who was traded to the Austin Gamblers for Cort McFadden and Austin Richardson following the No. 9 pick.
No. 4 Pick: Josh Frost (Carolina Cowboys)
No. 5 Pick: Kyler Oliver (Unrestricted Free Agent)
No. 8 Pick: Lucas Divino (Austin Gamblers) who was later traded back to the Austin Gamblers for Hayden Harris following Austin’s No. 6 overall compensatory pick.
No. 9 Pick: Dener Barbosa
No. 12 Pick: Eduardo Matos (Missouri Thunder)
New York Mavericks:
No. 2 Pick: Vitor Losnake (Arizona Ridge Riders)
No. 3 Pick: Leonardo Castro Ferreira (Kansas City Outlaws)
No. 6 Pick: Braidy Randolph (Texas Rattlers)
No. 7 Pick: Leandro Jose Zampollo (Unrestricted Free Agent)
No. 10 Pick: Ederson Santos (Unrestricted Free Agent)
No. 11 Pick: Romario Leite (Unrestricted Free Agent)
Via the draft picks by the Oklahoma Wildcatters and New York Mavericks, the Nashville Stampede, Arizona Ridge Riders, Kansas City Outlaws, Carolina Cowboys, Texas Rattlers, Austin Gamblers and Missouri Thunder all earned compensatory picks. With those selections they drafted the following riders:
No. 1 Pick – Nashville Stampede: Luke Parkinson (Denman, New South Wales, Australia)
No. 2 Pick – Arizona Ridge Riders: Qynn Andersen (Koumala, Queensland, Australia)
No. 3 Pick – Kansas City Outlaws: Pass
No. 4 Pick – Carolina Cowboys: Dawson Branton (Jefferson, Oregon)
No. 5 Pick – Texas Rattlers: Roscoe Jarboe (New Plymouth, Idaho)
No. 6 Pick – Austin Gamblers: Harris who was immediately traded to the Oklahoma Wildcatters to reacquire Divino.
No. 7 Pick – Missouri Thunder: Grayson Cole (New Ringgold, Pennsylvania)
Following the Expansion Draft and compensatory picks, the PBR Teams league held the lottery for the No. 1 pick in the New Rider Draft to be held on May 29 in Nashville.
Holding 27 of the 100 available ping pong balls, the Florida Freedom earned the No. 1 overall pick. The Freedom will begin 2024 under the new leadership of Head Coach Paulo Crimber, who was announced as the 2024 Heroes & Legends Ring of Honor inductee earlier in the day. The talented pool of prospects for the New Rider Draft are led by Crimber’s son, John Crimber (Decatur, Texas) a teenage phenom who is currently ranked No. 2 in the 2024 PBR World Championship Race, in addition to fellow young guns Clay Guiton (Cherryville, North Carolina) and Marco Rizzo (Quitman, Georgia).
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 Todd Brewer/Bull Stock Media