“I grew up picturing curlers with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths while they played," jokes Mike Cotton, who admits his perception of curlers was dead wrong.
"It’s our job to keep breaking down those outdated ideas of what curlers look like."
This task is at the core of Cotton's business. As Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of The Curling Group, he has not only invested in the Grand Slam of Curling, but in the future of curling.
What changed his perception? Being on the ice for a Grand Slam and seeing the elite athletes in action.
"Team Mouat, who was the number-one ranked men's team in the world, had a crucial shot to win the game, and Bruce [Mouat] was preparing to throw," recalls Cotton. "One of his sweepers, Hammy McMillan, looked at him and said, 'Just get it close and we'll do the rest.' And sure enough, Bruce executed the shot and Hammy and the other sweeper swept it to the exact spot all the way on the other side of the ice where they needed it to secure victory. It was a stunning display of the skill required to compete and win at this level.”
Fit, highly skilled, and fiercely competitive, the exceptional athletes in the Grand Slam of Curling hail from across the globe. When Slush Puppie Place hosts the Grand Slam of Curling Players’ Cup from December 15–20, it will feature the best of the best. Only the top 12 teams from men’s and women’s sides qualify, making it the most prestigious event on the Grand Slam circuit.
From Kingston roots to sports business executive
Born and raised in Kingston, Cotton credits his early years in the service industry -- as a busboy at Frankie Pesto’s [now Time Out Bar and Bistro], then a bartender at Chez Noir [now Black Dog] and at The Toucan while at Queen's University -- for helping him understand sales.
“Customer service experience is incredibly valuable, especially in your teens when you're learning to navigate the world socially and professionally," he explains. "Dealing with unhappy customers and defusing tense situations at a young age really laid the groundwork for how I negotiate business deals and commercial agreements today. It taught me to take emotion out of the equation, focus on solving the key issue at hand, and work towards a positive outcome that benefits all stakeholders.”
Cotton always wanted to work in sport despite being a self-described “mediocre” athlete. As early as elementary school, he was interested in the business side.
I would hear people complain about how athletes were overpaid and I wanted to understand the circumstances that created this type of demand for their services," recalls Cotton. "I started educating myself on how revenue splits were allocated between owners and athletes.
"I learned why lucrative linear broadcast rights were leading to steady, and sometimes dramatic, increases to player salaries. And how collective bargaining agreements impacted revenue-sharing in professional sports leagues."
Cotton went to Queen’s where he called the football games on CFRC from 2005-9. After completing his undergraduate degree in Economics, and a Masters of Economic Policy at McMaster, Cotton worked as an economist for the Harper administration and was mentored by former Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty. In his mid-20s, he moved to the epicentre of the sports world to complete a Masters of Sport Business at New York University. While there, Cotton worked for the New York Rangers, but says he really broke into sports on a self-driven initiative.
“I prepared hockey analytics packages for every team in the NHL and sent them to the general managers of every hockey operations department. Half a dozen responded, and I ended up doing work for several of them,” says Cotton, whose efforts showed NHL Hockey Operations departments how analytics can be integrated into personnel and strategic decisions that help teams win more games.
In 2015, Cotton was running business operations for the St. John Sea Dogs when a phone call from former CFL commissioner Mark Cohon changed his career trajectory. Cohon called Cotton to ask if he wanted to oversee a new sport and media venture fund called Ryerson Futures Incorporated, which invested in companies serving the sports, media, and entertainment industries. From augmented reality to wearable technologies and data analytics, Cotton reviewed hundreds of startups every week and helped decide which ones were worthy of investment.
“I spent four years working with founders who were genuinely changing the sports landscape,” he recalls. Besides seeing the future of the sports and entertainment industry, Cotton also had a front row seat to all the mistakes startups make.
The only thing better than learning from your own mistakes is learning from those others make.
Acquiring the Grand Slam of Curling
Soon, another golden opportunity presented itself: In 2023, Rogers Sportsnet approached PointsBet Canada about sponsoring the Grand Slam of Curling, which was owned and operated by Rogers. Nic Sulsky was PointBet Canada’s Chief Commercial Officer and, rather than sponsor them, Sulsky asked if he could buy the property. With their attention on the domestic NHL rights deal, owning, operating, and broadcasting the Toronto Blue Jays, plus other business interests tied up in the Toronto Raptors and UFC, Rogers was willing to sell.
“[Sulsky] asked me to look into the deal, run some due diligence, and in his own words, 'Tell me if I'm crazy for buying this.' The deeper we got, the more interesting the opportunity became,” recalls Cotton.
Several data points made the property enticing to Cotton, Sulsky and their investors. For one, curling had grown immensely as an international sport.
“It really took off in Asia after the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, particularly on the women's side. The underdog South Korean women's team made an historic run all the way to the gold medal game. And their semi-final victory over Japan is still the most-watched televised curling event in history,” says Cotton.
Additionally, the viewership of women’s curling outperforms men’s, which made the acquisition even more attractive, given brands are increasingly clamouring to get into women's sports.
Upon closing the deal in 2024, Cotton and The Curling Group secured the ownership of the Grand Slam of Curling, launched their own streaming platform, Rock Channel, to reach a global audience, and built a data feed making it possible to bet on curling. Since then, they have expanded their broadcast deal -- which now includes Sportsnet, CBC, ESPN and DAZN -- staged their first Slam outside of Canada in Lake Tahoe, and launched the Rock League consisting of six global franchises, with both men’s and women’s teams in each region.
New opportunities at the forefront of The Curling Group’s mandate include running Jr. GSOC events for young curlers and Slams for wheelchair curling. When the Grand Slam comes to Kingston, it will also bring a wheelchair curling event to the Royal Kingston Curling Club. The finals for the wheelchair event will share the ice at Slush Puppie Place on Sunday, December 20.
Looking ahead, Cotton wants to enhance streams with multi-language feeds, incorporate augmented reality into the broadcast to enhance brand localization, and host annual events overseas. Current efforts are focused on enhancing fan engagement and the in-person experience.
“We want fans to know these athletes on and off the ice. These are interesting, funny, competitive people,” says Cotton.
With every Slam, The Curling Group also hosts a series of after-draw events such as the Aprés Curl and other post-event parties.
“You should be able to come for the curling, and stay for a night out,” he adds.
Bringing the Slam home
Holiday season in downtown Kingston will be lively as the Player’s Cup at Slush Puppie Place kicks off just before the break begins. Cotton says pitching the Grand Slam to a potential new fan is simple.
“If you watched curling during the Olympics and thought, ‘This is weirdly addictive’, come join us at Slush Puppie Place, December 15 to 20; you won't regret it. You're going to see the best curlers on the planet competing at the highest level. Our events offer the same calibre of curling you saw in the Winter Olympics,” he explains.
With Kingston’s large curling community coming out in force along with live music, after parties, and other entertainment, the tournament promises to be a good time. Cotton is proud to stage the event in his hometown.
"Bringing a Grand Slam to the city is a true full-circle moment for me," he says. "The strong sense of community I felt growing up in Kingston definitely had a huge impact on shaping who I am today."
As Mike Cotton and The Curling Group paint a new picture of curling, Kingston can rest assured that the city had a hand in the sport’s next evolution.
