Newcastle, Parramatta and Wests Tigers will join North Queensland, Brisbane and Gold Coast in the NRL's new elite touch football premiership.
The NRL confirmed on Thursday the competition, which will have matches played as curtain-raisers to the NRL in May and July, will be split into NSW and Queensland pools before an eventual final.
Under the structure, each team, backed and linked to their NRL club, will play two pool games before the winners play off in an eventual final.
It comes as the NRL and Touch Football Australia aim to grow the amateur competition into a semi-professional series in coming years.
There will be both a men's and women's league, with matches to be broadcast and played as double-headers, allowing for an hour of gameplay to fill the hole left by the cancellation of the national under-20s competition before NRL games.
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"We've seen so many touch football players, from Benji Marshall to Kalyn Ponga, Bevan French, Matt Dufty and Maddie Studdon, for instance, move from touch football into the NRL," Touch Football Australia chief executive Steve Mitchell said.
"So we're excited about giving our touch players a tournament."
