The event, which is scheduled to take place from September 13 to 18, follows on from the inaugural edition held in American city Fort Lauderdale last year.

On that occasion, the Brazilian pairings of Bruno Oscar Schmidt and Alison Cerutti and Talita Antunes and Larissa Franca were crowned the respective men’s and women’s champions.

The second edition at Polson Pier will cap off a jam-packed season, including Major Series events in Hamburg, Porec, Gstaad and Klagenfurt, Grand Slams in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Olsztyn and Long Beach, the beach volleyball tournament at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and a total of 13 Open events.

Teams will be able to collect the last points to qualify for the Finals at the Major Series event in Klagenfurt from tomorrow until Sunday (July 31) and at the Long Beach Grand Slam from August 23 to 28.

Featuring 12 sides per gender including wild cards, with a quota of maximum two teams per country, the participants will be grouped in four pools of three followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals.

The event, for which the prize money is $500,000 (£381,000/€455,000), is likely to feature the new men's and women's Olympic champions with it coming less than a month after Rio 2016.

"The Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals are taking beach volleyball to a new level of excellence and ensuring it takes the next step towards becoming the world’s leading family sport entertainment," said FIVB President Ary Graça. 

"Fans can look forward to a great event when the world’s best teams gather in Toronto for what promises to be a fitting climax to a spectacular Olympic year."

The spectator experience for this year’s Finals is set to be enhanced with the same Hawkeye setup as that from Rio 2016 to be used, providing key match data and other facts and figures.

The Finals will be the first World Tour event to be held on Canadian soil since the Québec Open in 2011, when the United States' Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser won the men's competition and Brazil’s Maria Antonelli and Antunes claimed the women’s title.