PointsBet, Curling Canada Seek Continued Growth

Curling Takes Off  ‘Around The World’

At the recent Canadian Gaming Summit in Toronto, Henderson spoke with Gambling.com about the sport’s future.

One of the surprises in a country where curling is king is the lack of sportsbooks, except for PointsBet Canada, offering opportunities to wager on curling. This limits betting on events such as the Tim Hortons Brier men’s national championship and the Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s national championship.

Henderson said the marriage between curling and sports betting is in its infancy. 

“This is all still very new to all of us,” she said.

However, curling lends itself to live betting, which creates growth opportunities for the sport, Henderson said. She added that Curling Canada’s research shows sports betting will bring new fans to curling.

“Curling is a complicated game,” she said. “The beauty in it is the nuance, the strategies. We find that when people are betting responsibly on it they follow the game more closely, they learn about it, and they tend to fall in love with it.” 

In curling, the strategy changes after every shot, Henderson said. That means the sport is unpredictable, which makes it perfect for micro-betting.

She also noted that the sport's popularity is expanding not just in Canada, but also internationally.  

“So much curling is played at so many different levels in Canada, from the junior and secondary tours all the way up to the national and international events,” she said. “We have a population that is intelligent about the game, and it’s taking off around the world.”

During a panel discussion at the summit, Henderson told the audience that a recent curling event recorded the third highest handle, after Major League Baseball betting and NFL betting. Curling even does better than NHL betting, which is surprising with the popularity of hockey in Canada.

“There’s a wager that can be placed on almost every shot,” she said. 

PointsBet Canada’s chief commercial officer, Nic Sulsky, said the company is focused on boosting its relationship with Curling Canada.

“While curling doesn’t yet crack our top five sports PointsBet users bet on, we have seen steady growth from major event to major event,” Sulsky said. “Even more importantly, in recent months, our dedication to curling has proven to be a major factor behind our substantial growth in Ontario.”

As part of the company’s relationship with Curling Canada, PointsBet Canada is the title sponsor of a Curling Canada Season of Champions event.

Curling's 2023 Season Begins In September

Curling is played in every Canadian province and territory, at 1,000 clubs, and is played by almost two million people in the country each year. 

There are over 300 hours of Curling Canada events on television every year, and the national championships for both men’s and women’s teams always score big ratings. 

Sulsky said there have been continued discussions about “introducing regulated sports betting to the curling fans in a genuinely respectable way while also injecting a thrilling new energy into the sport.”

“The quintessential example of that was the development of the PointsBet Invitational, the first-ever single-elimination bracket-style curling tournament, which was held this past September in Fredericton,” he said. “The unique format mixed with the event’s dynamic design had the curling world buzzing and further solidified our commitment to the sport.”

The 2023 curling season kicks off with the second annual PointsBet Invitational at the end of September in Oakville.