World champion Emily Seebohm will lead a small but impressive group of Dolphins stars at the $A4.2 million, three-leg Champions Swim Series which will be held in Guangzhou on Saturday and Sunday.

While the invitation-only series opener will provide a vital hit-out ahead of this year's world titles, it also looms as a nice little earner for Australia's contingent of Seebohm, world beating sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell and our sole male competitor Jack O'Loughlin.

With FINA covering all travel and accommodation expenses, more than $1.13 million will also be thrown around in appearance fees alone with competitors also earning cash bonuses for results in the series that will also take in Budapest (May 11-12) and Indianapolis (May 31-June 1).

Winners of each event - which will feature just four hand-picked swimmers - will receive more than $A14,000 while world records will also earn a $A29,000 bonus.

It's good money if you can get it but the event is set to be surpassed by the rebel International Swimming League (ISL).

FINA quickly organised the Champions Swim Series as a direct response to the $7.7 million ISL organised by Ukrainian energy billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin set to be launched later this year.

FINA reportedly threatened bans for athletes who competed in the ISL before relenting and allowing world class swimmers clearly disgruntled over a lack of financial incentive to compete before launching their own competition.

The team-based ISL will be be held from October-December.

A host of Australians brushed invites to the Champions Swim Series in order to compete in the cashed-up ISL due to a clash with the recent national swimming titles in Adelaide.

However, world 200m backstroke champion Seebohm missed the national titles just to focus on the Champion Swim Series' two opening legs, using it as a key world championship warm-up.

"This year is about taking chances and doing different things so when the FINA series came up I was very interested in racing people I will be up against in the next couple of years (at Tokyo 2020)," Seebohm told AAP.

Overall, nine Olympic gold medallists and 16 world titles gold medallists will contest the Champions Swim Series' first leg.

At Guangzhou, Seebohm will contest the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, flying the Australian flag along with Cate Campbell (50m-100m freestyle, 500m butterfly), Bronte Campbell (100m freestyle) and O'Loughlin (400m freestyle).

Australian Associated Press