England and Great Britain Hockey has announced a major three-year sponsorship agreement with Harrogate Water including being the official water of the Hockey Women's World Cup London 2018.

Hockey is one of the world's most popular team sports - broadcast in 125 countries - and has been on a domestic high since the British team won women's gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016, following bronze at the London Olympics in 2012.

Countries taking part in the 2018 Women's World Cup, alongside England, represent every continent and will include Argentina, Australia, China, Germany, USA and South Africa.

Altogether, sixteen teams will compete at London's Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in the Queen Olympic Park from July 21st to August 5th, 2018. A public ticket ballot is now underway to help accommodate unprecedented demand for England matches.

Nicky Cain of Harrogate Water said: "This is an exciting time to be involved with England and Great Britain Hockey and offers enormous opportunities. More than ten million Brits watched Great Britain win gold in Rio and the Hockey Women's World Cup will have a global audience of around one billion.

"The great attraction of the sport for us is that hockey appeals to men and women in equal measure, with a family-friendly following and a strong healthy lifestyle bias.

"We share England and Great Britain Hockey's passion and ambition, not only their determination to excel, but also their desire to inspire and make a difference.

"It is refreshing to see an elite team sport in which women are leading the way and becoming role models with huge popular support and appreciation for their achievements. We're proud to be sponsoring the Hockey Women's World Cup and are really looking forward to working with both the women's and men's teams and following their fortunes over the next three years".

Jon Cockcroft, Commercial Director at England and Great Britain Hockey, said: "It is fantastic to have such a recognised and aspirational brand partnerwith England Hockey. With growing public awareness of hockey as a participation and spectator sport and the huge opportunity that a home World Cup presents, we look forward to developing exciting campaigns which build our respective brands.

"With the Hockey Women's World Cup and the overall partnership,we look forward to working with Harrogate Water. As with other partners it is a great opportunity to raise their brand-awareness and profile through the international and domestic game for both men and women".

Nicky Cain added: "We are particularly thrilled by the opportunity to work with players, including the Olympic stars, in marketing activities, helping to increase visibility of hockey at all levels, from grassroots participation through to celebrating performance on the world stage. Exciting times ahead".

Harrogate Water boasts a successful track record of sports sponsorship. The Harrogate Spring brand is the official water of Royal Ascot and Ascot Racecourse. It was the official water of England Cricket for three years until March and remains the official water of Yorkshire Cricket. It is the official water of British Masters Golf 2017.

Harrogate's first mineral spring was discovered in 1571 and the water was first bottled in 1740, making Harrogate Spring the original British bottled water.