By Cole Gallagher / August 23, 2026
Montana’s Brier 2027 · February 26 – March 7, 2027 · Saskatoon, Saskatchewan · Canadian Men’s Curling Championship
🥌 The Brier Lands in Saskatoon 🥌
The 2027 field is not set. Provincial and territorial playdowns run through January and February and determine most entries.
Canada’s men’s national curling championship comes to Saskatoon from February 26 to March 7, 2027. Montana’s Brier is the men’s equivalent of the Scotties – ten days, provincial and territorial champions, a national title and a world championship berth on the line – and in Saskatchewan it will be played in front of one of the best curling crowds in the country. Compare where to place these bets in our top betting sites guide.
Brier 2027 Outright Odds
| Team | To Win |
| Team Canada (defending champion entry) | Check Odds → |
| Alberta | Check Odds → |
| Manitoba | Check Odds → |
| Ontario | Check Odds → |
| Saskatchewan | Check Odds → |
| Rest of Field (full market) | Check Odds → |
Operators price the Brier by team name once entries are confirmed, which is typically in the final weeks of February. Which rinks carry these banners in 2027 is entirely undecided.
Saskatoon, February 26 – March 7
Saskatchewan is one of the great curling provinces and a Brier there is a serious event. Prairie Briers reliably produce large, loud, deeply knowledgeable crowds who will watch a Tuesday morning draw between two teams from other provinces with genuine interest. If you are new to the sport and want to understand why the Brier matters in Canada in a way no other curling event does, watch the Saskatoon crowd.
For a bettor, home-province support is worth acknowledging without over-weighting. Curling is an individual-skill sport played in near silence during delivery, and there is no defensive pressure a crowd can apply. A partisan building probably matters less here than in almost any other sport. What it does affect is the Saskatchewan entry’s week – more attention, more expectation, more media – and that cuts both ways.
Format and Qualification
The Brier is Canada’s men’s national championship and in recent editions has followed the same broad structure as the Scotties: provincial and territorial champions plus a defending Team Canada entry and wild-card teams, split into pools for a round robin, then a championship round and playoff. Curling Canada confirms the specific field size and structure for each edition, so treat the format as familiar rather than guaranteed.
The important part is how teams get in. Almost every entry wins a provincial or territorial playdown to be there. Those playdowns are brutal in the deep provinces – Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario routinely have several teams capable of winning a Brier and only one of them gets to go. Meanwhile, smaller associations send a champion regardless of how the depth compares.
That produces the defining characteristic of the Brier field: it is not the twelve or so best men’s teams in Canada. It is the best team from each region plus a couple of wild cards. Very strong rinks miss this event every year by losing one game in January. Anyone betting the Brier needs to internalise that before assuming their favourite will even be in the draw.
The winner represents Canada at the world men’s championship and returns as the Team Canada entry the following year.
How the Brier Differs from a Grand Slam
The Brier and the Grand Slam of Curling are both elite men’s curling, but they are structurally different products and they should be bet differently.
A Slam is a compressed, invitational-style event with a field selected substantially on ranking, meaning almost every game is between two strong teams. The Brier is longer, has a wider spread of team strength because of guaranteed regional representation, and has a round robin substantial enough that a single bad draw is survivable.
Practically: the Brier outright is a more forgiving bet than a Slam outright, because the format gives the better teams time to assert themselves and reduces the impact of one poor game. Conversely, Brier early-round match markets contain more genuine mismatches, which means shorter prices and less room to work with. Slam match markets are more competitive and more interesting; Brier outrights are more predictable. Choose accordingly.
One more difference worth noting. The Brier comes at the end of a long season, immediately after the Scotties and after the full Grand Slam schedule has been played. By late February you have an enormous amount of information: five Slams, a Players’ Cup, provincial playdowns and whatever tour events teams have entered. This is the best-informed curling market of the entire year.
Curling Betting Markets Explained
Event outright. A team to win the Brier. Posted once the field is known, generally in the last two weeks of February.
Match winner. A single game between two rinks. Two-way, because tied games are resolved with an extra end. This carries the most in-play volume and is the market most consistently available across Canadian operators.
Hammer and first-end advantage. The hammer is the last stone of an end, and holding it is a meaningful advantage: the team with hammer is playing to score two or more, while the team without is trying to force them to a single point or steal. Scoring gives the hammer away for the next end, which is why teams sometimes blank an end on purpose to hold onto it. First-end hammer is set by a pre-game procedure that differs between competitions. It is worth confirming who has it before you back a match, because it shifts the price.
Totals. Most commonly a line on total points scored in a game. Be aware that curling matches frequently end before the scheduled number of ends when a team concedes, and settlement rules for conceded games are not identical across books. Check the terms.
What Is Not Known Yet
The entire 2027 Brier field. Provincial and territorial playdowns have not been played, no entries are confirmed, and the 2026-27 season has not begun, so there are no current results for any team in Canada.
Anyone naming Brier favourites today is projecting January playdown results six months in advance. The honest position is that the market does not exist yet in any meaningful form, and the time to engage with it is late February.
Our Prediction
Cole’s Pick: The Brier outright is the best-informed curling bet of the season – save your curling bankroll for it
The case is about timing rather than any team. By the time the Brier starts on February 26 you will have watched five Grand Slams, a Players’ Cup finale in Kingston, every provincial playdown and the Scotties. There is no other point in the curling calendar where a bettor has that much verified, current information about the exact teams in front of them. Combine that with a long round robin that punishes variance less than a compressed Slam does, and the Brier outright is the most evidence-driven position available in this sport all year. The deep-province playdowns in January are the thing to watch, because that is where the field is really decided.
Confidence: high on the approach, none on any team or province. No playdowns have been held and no 2027 entry exists.
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Cole Gallagher covers soccer betting for WorldCupBetting.ca, specialising in match predictions, odds analysis and tournament futures. Based in Toronto, he has followed the Canadian men’s national team since their 2022 qualifying campaign and brings a line-shopping, data-first approach to every pick.