The incentive to compete in the world's premier sailing series just got bigger.

A $250,000 overall prize pool for the top nine teams with a $50,000 bonus for the outright winner of next year's World Match Racing Tour is now on offer.

The Argo Group Gold Cup staged every year in Hamilton Harbour is one of nine races in the series on the tour and will be sailed this year from October 4-10.

Last year three-time Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie from England won the Gold Cup, beating New Zealander Adam Minoprio.

This year the tour starts in April when the Marseille International Match Race off the coast of France is sailed. The tour ends in December at the Monsoon Cup K. Terengganu off Malaysia.

In between, the sailors will travel to Germany, South Korea, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Bermuda.

The tour's final event of the year in Malaysia has always been an exciting but tense and nervous affair for the teams still in with a chance of lifting the coveted ISAF World Match Racing Tour trophy. But this year the sailors will also be fighting it out for their share of the $250,000 bonus, just to add to the pressure on what will be a down to the wire fight for the championship.

Newly crowned world champions, Adam Minoprio and his BlackMatch crew have accepted their WMRT Tour Card, so they will be back.