Round-Robin Pools, Schedule Finalized for 2023 Scotties in Kamloops

Feb 2 2023 3:26pm

Team Kerri Einarson will begin their pursuit of a fourth straight women’s curling championship when they face Quebec’s team Laurie St-Georges on February 17 to win the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Kamloops, BC open

Round robin pools and schedules for the annual event featuring the top women’s curling teams from across Canada have just been finalized. Teams begin with an eight-game round robin in Pool A and Pool B. From there, the top three teams in each pool advance to the playoffs.

The semifinals of the tournament will take place on February 26th at 12pm, followed by the final at 6pm that evening.

The winner will represent Canada at the World Women’s Curling Championship March 18-26 in Sandviken, Sweden.

Einarson and her in Gimli, Man. Resident Team Canada (Vice Skip Val Sweeting, Second Shannon Birchard, Lead Brianne Harris and Coach Reid Carruthers rounding out the roster) have won the last three and a win at Kamloops would set Team Colleen Jones’ record for consecutive titles (2001 -04).

The event will feature 18 teams – Team Canada, 14 provincial/territorial champions and three wildcard teams – divided into two pools of nine seeded based on their final standings in the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) on January 30th. Here’s the full schedule and roster of teams in both pools.

Team Kaitlyn Lawes (Winnipeg), Team Casey Scheidegger (Lethbridge, Alta.) and Team Meghan Walter (East St. Paul, Man.) secured the wild card berths.

Oakville hosts PointsBet Invitational

Sixteen men’s and sixteen women’s teams will compete in the second annual PointsBet Invitational from September 26th to October 1st, this time at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex in Oakville.

The PointsBet Invitational will be the first major event of the 2023-24 season as fans will see the results of off-season roster changes for the first time as Canada’s top teams prepare to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

“(The PointsBet Invitational) is a unique event featuring our nation’s top curlers,” said Nic Sulsky, PointsBet Canada Chief Commercial Officer.

A spokesman for PointsBet Canada described the launch event at Willie O’Ree Place in Fredericton, NB as a successful launch that generated 30 hours of live coverage on TSN while simultaneously airing on ESPN 3 in the US. The spokesperson said there was “solid engagement” on social media as well.

Team Jennifer Jones won the women’s title while Team Reid Carruthers won the men’s event.

While he didn’t give specific numbers, the spokesperson said that this was the “first big bang” for curling betting markets at PointsBet Canada and, at least anecdotally, they saw a “surge” in interest in curling betting during the tournament.