Curling Canada says PointsBet Invitational could be revamped

The quirky PointsBet Invitational that concluded Sunday in Calgary with Mike McEwen and Rachel Homan each picking up early-season cheques of $50,000 could be revamped, says Curling Canada chief executive officer Nolan Thiessen.

The PointsBet's hook is its single-knockout format, and the chance of a national club, junior, college, university or under-25 champion upsetting the top teams in Canada.

That happened in Calgary with Allyson MacNutt's junior team toppling four-time Canadian women's champ Kerri Einarson in the first round. In men's play, Jordan McDonald's under-25 foursome beat Matt Dunstone in the first round and defeated Kevin Koe in the quarterfinals.

However, with the 2025 Olympic trials on the horizon, Thiessen wonders if a cash tournament offering a maximum four games to a team over five days needs to provide more game reps.

"Next year's a really important year with the trials and preparing our teams," Thiessen said in Calgary. "The cool thing that we see here about the win-or-go home single elimination is that, 'Oh my goodness, my event might be over. It's the sixth end and I'm down two and my event might be over.'

"Creating that sense of urgency is a good thing, but also, we want to give our trials teams opportunities on arena ice in preparation for the trials. Are there games to be played so that they have more opportunities? Now is the time to look at it if we want to change something. After three years, you have a sample size."

The fourth edition of the PointsBet returns to Calgary from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, 2025, followed by November's Olympic team trials in Halifax.

Southern Alberta's warm, sunny weather at the end of September wasn't conducive to a large fan turnout at WinSport Arena, which was barely