Canada's Kevin Koe will skip a team for North America at the Continental Cup of Curling ©Getty Images

Players at the Continental Cup of Curling in Las Vegas will compete in a new team scramble format which puts emphasis on mixing and matching the world's top players.

The competition, described as curling's version of the Ryder Cup, begins tomorrow until January 20 at the Orleans Arena.

Six teams from North America take on six international teams in traditional curling games, mixed team play, skins competition and mixed doubles games.

Four Canadian teams are representing North America, skipped by Brad Gushue, women's world champion Jennifer Jones and 2018 Olympians Kevin Koe and Rachel Homan.

Strengthening the North American squad are two teams from the United States, skipped by men's Olympic champion John Shuster and Jamie Sinclair.

Team North America will be led by coach Jeff Stoughton, assistant coach Jill Officer and captain Pete Fenson.

North America won last year's event, beating Team World in a tiebreaker.

Four teams from that Team World squad return, including those skipped by men's world champion Niklas Edin of Sweden, women's Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg of Sweden, Peter de Cruz of Switzerland and Eve Muirhead of Scotland.

Scotland's Bruce Mouat and Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni skip the remaining two teams.

Sweden's Anna Hasselborg, 2018 Olympic champion, will skip a team at the Continental Cup of Curling in Las Vegas ©Getty Images
Sweden's Anna Hasselborg, 2018 Olympic champion, will skip a team at the Continental Cup of Curling in Las Vegas ©Getty Images

Coach Fredrik Lindberg of Sweden, assistant coach Christoffer Svae of Norway and captain David Murdoch of Scotland will be leading Team World against North America.

Teams will compete in one men's and one women's traditional team play game and four mixed doubles draws.

Introduced this year are the team scramble and mixed team play events.

In the team scramble, men’s and women’s teams will be mixed to form new same-gender lineups, but front-end and back-end team-mates cannot be on the same line-up. 

There will be one men’s team scramble draw and one women’s team scramble draw.

Mixed team play will consist of two men and two women on a team, with two games featuring line-ups of a male skip, female vice-skip, male second and female lead. 

The third game will feature a female skip, male vice-skip, female second and male lead.

The competition will then conclude with two draws of skins games.

The winning side gets CAD$85,000 (£50,000/$64,000/€56,000) while the losing team receives C$45,000 (£26,000/$34,000/€30,000).