Curling's PointsBet Invitational quietly dropped from competition calendar this season

Tucked in at the bottom of a midsummer Curling Canada news release was a single paragraph confirming the PointsBet Invitational was no longer on the organization's annual schedule.

It was a quiet goodbye for a competition that failed to gain traction after debuting in 2022.

The event was originally trumpeted by the national federation as the first major championship of the quadrennial, featuring new teams, a new format and "new ways to be entertained."

Legalized sports betting was in its infancy in Canada at the time. Comparisons to the March Madness American men's college basketball tournament were made.

But the PointsBet Invitational fell flat in Year 1 and never found its footing.

"It was a good idea. It really was," said longtime TSN curling broadcaster Russ Howard. "But the format, in my humble opinion, was part of the problem."

The September 2022 debut, dubbed "Fall Madness,” was held in Fredericton. The top 12 Canadian teams in each gender were joined by national junior champions, club champions, host committee-selected teams and sponsor's exemptions.

The competition later moved to Oakville, Ont., and eventually to Calgary, but crowds were sparse.

Curling Canada high-performance executive director David Murdoch said sponsorship and the compact calendar were two key components of the decision to remove the PointsBet Invitational this season.

"We were like, 'Well, is it a necessity for us?"' he said. "Maybe it isn't. Should we take a year off and just see where this year goes? Because it is [a] busy [time] for our athletes. And is it really necessary?"

There was no event replacement in a packed 2026-27 campaign, which includes five Grand Slam of Curling events before Christmas and three Rock League stops