High River will play host to sixteen countries including Italy, Japan, Australia, India and China in July 2018 for the 36th Annual Shuffleboard World Championships.

Event Organizer Ken Wardley says he and others prepared a bid to have the event in High River and the decision of the International Shuffleboard Association was unanimous.

"It was determined that our bid would be accepted and there were two other places that were interested in hosting it, one was in Madison Wisconsin and the other was in North Carolina."

He says each team consists of at least eight players and adds there should be at least 250 people contributing to the local economy.

"We put a lot of effort into the bid, we had special bags made up for them and produced a video of the surrounding areas of High River."

"We will have High River put on the world map for shuffleboard and there will be sixteen countries represented at our International Shuffleboard Association Tournament."