Hotstar, an Indian streaming service, held a cricket-themed event at the Metreon in San Francisco on Saturday as part of its efforts to boost the popularity of both cricket and its platform in the U.S. The event, called CricFest, featured two legendary Indian players, Anil Kumble and Virender Sehwag, plus Gaurav Kapur, host of the popular talk show Breakfast with Champions.
“Hotstar is a streaming service that provides live sports, Bollywood, and drama out of India for the South Asian diaspora at large,” said Ipsita Dasgupta, President of Hotstar International and Strategy at Star India “We have a ton of content in cricket. Over the next 12 months we have 160 days of cricket. We have all the big tournaments and just a lot of exciting stuff coming up, including surround content.”
Saturday’s CricFest included virtual reality cricket games and other activations designed to help boost familiarity with the sport. The target audience was the South Asian population of the Bay Area, including those who may have grown up in the U.S., and who might perhaps be bigger baseball fans than cricket fans, or who might not watch sports much in general.
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