The annual competition pits six rinks from the United States and Canada against six from the rest of the world, with traditional team games, mixed doubles and skins matches all part of the event at the Orleans Arena.

A total of 60 points will be available from the three disciplines being contested in Las Vegas, meaning the side that earns more than 30 points will be declared the champion.

Described as curling's version of golf's Ryder Cup, points are won for each victory with the North Americans claiming a narrow 30½–29½ success at the 2016 event, which was also held in Las Vegas.

This was the closest finish in the competition's 12-year history, with two rinks from the successful line-up appearing again this year.

The team of Canada's Kevin Koe, winner of the 2016 World Championships in Basel in Switzerland, will take to the ice along with the team skipped by compatriot Jennifer Jones, the Sochi 2014 Olympic champion.

Jones will be playing in her eighth Continental Cup and is looking for a seventh victory.

Canadian rinks skipped by Reid Carruthers and Chelsea Carey will also compete for North America, alongside US teams headed by Jamie Sinclair and Heath McCormick.

North America will be coached by triple world champion Rick Lang and captained by another former world champion, Debbie McCormick, who is not related to Heath. 

The rest of the world team features three skips who have won Olympic medals and will be coached by Germany's double European champion Andy Kapp and captained by Norway's Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic champion Pål Trulsen.

Two Swedish teams will take part, the line-ups headed by Sochi 2014 bronze medallist Niklas Edin and former world junior champion Anna Hasselborg.

Norway's Thomas Ulsrud, the Olympic silver medallist at Vancouver 2010, will also lead a rink alongside Switzerland's Binia Feltscher, an Olympic silver medallist from Turin 2016, the reigning world champion.

Denmark's Rasmus Stjerne, the World Championship runner-up behind Koe in Basel, will be another to watc, while the only non-European team will be headed by Japan's world silver medallist Satsuki Fujisawa.

Mixed doubles clashes are expected to be particularly interesting with the format debuting on the Olympic stage in Pyeongchang next year.

The World team has not won the Cup in four attempts, competing solely against Canada in 2015.

Team games are due to begin the action tomorrow.