The PointsBet Invitational is returning for a fourth consecutive year, this time with a fresh look.
With the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials quickly approaching – Nov. 22-30 in Halifax – Curling Canada implemented a new format for the early season tournament to help Canada’s top teams get ready for one of the biggest competitions of their lives.
No longer will 16 teams of each gender compete in a March Madness style, single-elimination tournament. Instead, 10 men’s and 10 women’s teams will be divided into two round-robin pools of five, guaranteeing all rinks attending Calgary’s Markin MacPhail Centre at least four games before going home.
Teams will earn three points for every win in regulation, two points for a win on the post-game draw, one point for a loss on the post-game draw, and no points for a loss in regulation.
The top two teams from each pool following round-robin play will advance directly to the championship game.
The seven men’s and women’s teams already qualified for the Canadian Curling Trials will be at the PointsBet. The last three spots were determined by the 2024-25 Canadian Team Ranking System, Curling Canada’s NextGen Under-27 program and the champion of the 2025 Canadian Junior Curling Championships.
Let’s take a closer look at the pools and who has the best chance to take home the $35,000 grand prize.
Men Pool A
Brad Jacobs – Trials
Brad Gushue – Trials
John Epping – Trials
Kevin Koe – Trials
Calan MacIsaac – Junior champion
Pool A is the more experienced out of the two men’s pools with Brad Jacobs, Brad Gushue and Kevin Koe owning a combined 12 Brier Tankards.
There’s also John Epping, who had a resurgent 2024-25 season to book his rink a Trails spot. His Sudbury foursome has already joined the winners circle this season with a bonspiel victory at the Shorty Jenkins Classic in Cornwall, Ont., and made the playoffs at the Masters on the Grand Slam circuit.
Calan MacIsaac, who helped Nova Scotia claim their first men’s Canadian Junior Curling Championship since 1993 last season, will have his hands full, but will surely be grateful for the experience against some of the best rock throwers in the game.
The PointsBet Invitational will be one of the first major stops for Gushue during his final season of competitive curling. The Canadian, world and Olympic champion announced his retirement plans earlier this month.
The 45-year-old from St. John’s, Nfld., has won almost everything there is to win in the sport of curling, with the PointsBet being one of the few events he hasn’t.
Team Gushue made last year’s final before dropping an 8-3 decision to Team Mike McEwen in just eight ends.
The latest edition of the Battle of the Brads could determine who advances out of Pool A to the final.
Jacobs defeated Gushue in a memorable Brier semifinal last March en route to his first Tankard victory since 2013. The loss ended Gushue’s three-year reign as Canadian champion.
REIGN OVER @TeamGushue's three year run as the Canadian men's curling champions is over after falling to @TeamBradJacobs.
— TSN Curling (@TSNCurling) March 9, 2025
Jacobs will look to win his second Brier Tankard in tonight's final. #Brier2025pic.twitter.com/cfoFwLn0Op
Team Gushue didn’t seem to fully click after replacing power sweeper E.J. Harnden with Brendan Bottcher in October, so we’ll have to see if the group has a better chemistry in 2025-26.
They missed the playoffs at the Masters in their first event this season.
Team Koe also made an early lineup change last season, cutting Jacques Gauthier before later replacing him with former Alberta skip Aaron Sluchinski. At 50, Koe will be the oldest skip at the PointsBet and the Trials in November.
The four-time Brier champion hasn’t made any announcements regarding his future plans, but like Gushue, the 2025-26 season could be his last year of competitive curling in an Olympic year.
Team Jacobs will be the team to beat in Pool A after winning the Montana’s Brier before finishing third at the World Men’s Curling Championship in 2024-25, their first season as a collective unit.
Veteran curlers Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert made the difficult decision to cut skip Bottcher after the 2023-24 season in order to pick up Jacobs. The move proved to be the right one after Year 1 as the Calgary foursome enter this Olympic season as major contenders to represent Canada in Italy.
The members of Team Jacobs have a combined six appearances at the Winter Olympics, including three gold medals and a bronze.
Men Pool B
Matt Dunstone –Trials
Mike McEwen – Trials
Ryan Kleiter – Trials
Jordon McDonald – CTRS
Sam Mooibroek - NextGen U27
Youth is the storyline in Pool B.
Matt Dunstone, 30, and Mike McEwen, 45, are the elder statemen of this group and are also the last two runners-up at the Brier. Dunstone fell to Jacobs in the final of the Kelowna Brier last year while McEwen lost to Gushue in 2024 in Regina.
Dunstone already has a major win on his card this season after defeating Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte in the Masters final on Sunday for the second Grand Slam victory of his career.
McEwen missed the playoffs at the same event with a 2-2 record.
They’ll both be front runners to advance out of Pool B but will be contested by arguably the top three under-30 teams in men’s Canadian curling.
Saskatoon’s Rylan Kleiter, 27, Winnipeg’s Jordon McDonald, 22, and Whitby Ont.’s Sam Mooibroek, 25, all finished in the top 10 of the CTRS last season.
Kleiter went 3-5 in his first Brier appearance, earning enough points last season to qualify for the Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials.
Mooibroek also made his first Brier appearance last year and was a win away from making the playoffs before losing to another promising young skip in Nova Scotia’s Owen Purcell in the round-robin finale.
Both Mooibroek and McDonald will be favourites to grab the last Trials spot at the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials, scheduled to run from Oct. 20-26 in Wolfville, N.S.
Women Pool A
Rachel Homan – Trials
Christina Black – Trials
Kaitlyn Lawes – Trials
Beth Peterson – CTRS
Myla Plett – Junior champion
Team Rachel Homan are the two-time defending champions of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and World Women’s Curling Championship.
They’ve also won the previous two PointsBet Invitationals and are the favourites to win again this year in Calgary.
Following back-to-back historically dominant seasons, highlighted by a total record of 142-15, Homan and company are eyeing Olympic gold this season, the one curling accomplishment they have yet to cross off their list.
They’ll be the favourites to represent the country at the Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo Games in Italy but will have all of Canada gunning for them until then, including at the PointsBet Invitational.
Homan is coming in hot after winning her record-extending 18th Grand Slam title at the Masters over the weekend.
Christina Black and her Halifax rink had a terrific 2024-25 season, highlighted by a No. 4 CTRS ranking and a semifinal appearance at the Tournament of Hearts where they were edged by Team Kerri Einarson, 9-8.
Team Black will be the hometown team at the Canadian Curling Trials in November and could be a dark horse to win it all if they can take another step forward from last season.
Kaitlyn Lawes’ Winnipeg rink will also be at the Trials after finishing fifth on the CTRS last year. Team Lawes is entering their fourth season together and are still looking to find consistency week-in and week-out.
Under the previous format, Team Lawes was eliminated in the semifinal in each of the past three PointsBet Invitationals, losing to Team Casey Scheidegger in 2022, Team Einarson in 2023 and Team Homan in 2024.
To get to the final, Lawes will more than likely need to find a way to beat Homan, a curler she has lost six straight matches against.
Rounding out Pool A is Winnipeg’s Team Beth Peterson, ranked eighth in Canada last year, making their PointsBet debut and junior champs Team Myla Plett out of Edmonton and Sherwood Park, Alta.
Team Plett competed at the 2023 PointsBet Invitational, dropping their opener to six-time Scotties champion Jennifer Jones.
Team Peterson will enter October’s eight-team Pre-Trials as the top-ranked rink while Team Plett will be seventh.
Women Pool B
Kerri Einarson– Trials
Kayla Skrlik – Trials
Kate Cameron – Trials
Corryn Brown – Trials
Selena Sturmay - NextGen U27
Gimli’s Team Kerri Einarson should be considered the favourites to claim Pool B, but not by a lot.
Team Kayla Skrlik of Calgary had a great 2024-25 season with an appearance in the PointsBet final and the Scotties playoffs, finishing the year ranked third in Canada.
Then there’s the new-look Team Kate Cameron, who added Brianne Harris to play third this off-season. They’ve already played in four events this season with mixed results. Cameron and Einarson will go head-to-head on Oct. 2, which will be Harris’ first clash against Team Einarson following their awkward breakup last season.
Kamloops’ Team Corryn Brown had a strong Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay last year, posting a 6-2 record in the round robin before struggling in the Page 3 vs. 4 Qualifier against Nova Scotia’s Team Black.
Selena Sturmay, 27, and her Edmonton rink have shown ability to play at a high level as well, making the 2024 Scotties playoffs after a 7-1 round robin record. They took a step back last year, going 4-4, but will still be at the Pre-Trials in Wolfville, N.S.
Team Einarson is still the rink to beat in the pool, given their wealth of experience and past success.
Not to mention the lineup security they have this season with Shannon Birchard fully healthy, and Karlee Burgess permanently included following a trying 2024-25 season where it seemed they iced a new foursome for every event.
A comfortable Team Einarson will likely be Team Homan’s toughest test at the Canadian Curling Trials come November and the PointsBet could serve as a nice appetizer for that potential best-of-three final in Halifax.
