The round robin stage for the King Edward VII Gold Cup has seen last year's champion Johnnie Berntsson grouped with Bermuda's Blythe Walker and former winner Mathieu Richard.

Berntsson, of Sweden, and the top eight skippers were evenly dispersed into three groups of the annual trophy race, which starts in Hamilton Harbour today.

The round robin is the first step on the path to the Gold Cup and $50,000 – half of the total $100,000 prize purse.

Tovar Mirsky of Australia, Adam Minoprio of New Zealand, and France's Mathieu Richard are the top seeds

Group One will see Mirsky up against Ian Williams of Great Britian, France's Damien Iehl, Australia's Keith Swinton , Switzerland's Eric Monin, Reuben Corbett of New Zealand, and Great Britain's Robbie Allum and USA's Ian Evans.

Paired with Minoprio, in Group Two are Sebastian Col of France, Great Britain's Ben Ainslie, Sweden's Bjorn Hansen, Alvaro Marinho of Portugal, USA's Dave Perry, Rasmus Viltoft of Denmark, and Bermuda's Paula Lewin.

Matched in Group Three with Richard are Peter Gilmour of Australia, Johnnie Berntsson Sweden's Mattias Rahm, New Zealand's Phil Robertson, Blythe Walker, USA's Don Wilson and USA's Charlie Enright.

"We use a formula based on ISAF rankings and Tour experience to develop the parings." said Gold Cup chairman Brian Billings.

"We have the top eight skippers and last year's champion divided among the three groups.

"Then we work from there to make the groups as equal as possible. It is a unique format on the World Match Racing Tour.

"Sixteen teams will be eliminated before the quarter-finals begin. Even the top ranked skippers can be knocked out early."

From the round-robin stage, the top two from each of the original three groups automatically move into the quarter-finals.

The third and fourth finishers in each original group then meet in the 'repecharge' round-robin called Group Four.

The top two will join the original six in the step up the ladder and advance into the quarter-finals, with a chance to go to the semi-finals on Saturday and finals on Sunday.