Next League launches International Practice

Cristina Vanderbeck Joins Next League as its VP, Americas

Next League, a global team of strategists and technologists specialising in creating, designing, building and operating technology solutions for sports organisations, today announced the hire of Cristina Vanderbeck as its VP, Americas.

In this newly created role, Cristina will be focused on how North American sports leagues can diversify their fan base and presence in Latin America and vice versa. Cristina, fluent in both Spanish and Portuguese, has spent her entire career building and growing sports properties in the Latin American market. She was honoured earlier this year by Latinos in Sports, an organisation dedicated to connecting teams, leagues, media companies and brands with the power of the Latino community, as one of top Latin Executives in Florida.

Cristina joins Next League from the PGA TOUR where she helped revamp and lead PGA TOUR Latinoamérica; in this role she played an instrumental role in elevating one of the oldest and most traditional golf tournaments in the world, the Argentine Open, into a Korn Ferry Tour event.. She ultimately grew the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica business into PGA TOUR Americas as an evolution of the Latin America and Canadian developmental tours.

Prior to the PGA TOUR, Cristina spent nearly 5 years at Major League Soccer where she worked on their international properties, including the commercial rights of the Mexican Soccer Federation and CONCACAF, and was part of the team responsible for bringing the Copa America Centenario to the United States in 2016. Before that, she spent almost 5 years at the New York Red Bulls on their Business Development team as they built and opened Red Bull Arena.

“Cristina brings a wealth of expertise to Next League that we believe will both differentiate and greatly position us in the marketplace,” said David Nugent, Next League’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the World Cup taking place in North America in 2026, the next summer Olympics in LA in 2028 and the global growth of the American professional sports leagues, there is a tremendous opportunity to help American brands reach new fans across Latin America and vice versa. We are excited to leverage her network and extensive experience and believe investing in this area will continue to accelerate Next League’s vision of being the leader in global sports technology services.”

“Interest from North American sports properties and brands looking to grow their businesses within the Latin American market has never been greater,” said Cristina. “As the industry and needs of global sports properties and brands evolve, the strategic counsel and value we provide becomes that much more imperative. I look forward to leveraging my experience and building upon the relationships and partnerships I’ve forged over the years to help sports properties reach new global audiences to fuel the growth of their businesses.”

Cristina, originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil and now currently resides in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, is the latest senior-level Commercial hire brought on by Next League to support its growing business. She closely follows Joe Whelan, Next League’s VP, Strategic Sales, who joined last month.

 About Next League

Next League is a global team of strategists and technologists, specialising in creating, designing, building and operating technology solutions for sports organisations.

Trusted by the teams behind the teams, we navigate complex technology landscapes to optimise engagement and maximise revenue with and for our partners.

The diversity of our team is our superpower. Individually we are strategic thinkers, creative engineers and skilled operators; collectively, we are a sports-obsessed, value and results-driven organisation that brings innovative thinking to, and delivers meaningful impact for, our partners and our industry.