The men's and women's HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series will feature gold, silver and bronze medals for the first time from the 2016‑2017 season.
In a move that will align the annual series with the Olympic Games, World Rugby has also announced an exciting restructuring of the final competition day, driving greater meaning for teams and fans.
The traditional Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield winners format on the men's series will be replaced by two competitions.
The top two teams in each pool will progress to the Cup competition and the chance to win a gold medal, while lower ranked teams will contest a new Challenge Trophy competition.
The restructure means that each series event will climax with the 13th‑place positional play‑off, followed by the Challenge Trophy (ninth place), the fifth place play‑off, bronze medal match and the gold medal match (Cup winners).
In the 12‑team women's sevens series, the top two teams along with the two best third‑place finishers will progress to the Cup competition, while the other four teams will play off for the Challenge Trophy, replacing the Bowl competition.
The structure is similar to that operated at the Monaco and Dublin Olympic Games repechage events in June.
The number of matches the teams play across each event remains the same, as does the points distribution.
World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont says rugby sevens continues to go from strength to strength after a hugely successful Olympic Games debut and we are very much looking forward to what promises to be a very exciting and competitive men's and women's series.
The Dubai sevens kicks off on December 2nd and Fiji are the defending champions.
Source: HSBC sevens
