Meta wants to get into the prediction market game
Mark Zuckerberg is interested in his own prediction market app, according to a New York Times report.
by Ozzie Mejia · ShacknewsMeta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been sitting on the sidelines watching the action with predictive market entities like Polymarket and Kalshi and has determined that he wants in. At least that's according to a New York Times report that indicates that Meta is working on a standalone app that would allow users to bet on just about anything.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Zuckerberg assembled a small team to focus on a predictive market app, codenamed Arena. While Polymarket and Kalshi deal with real-money bets and transactions, Arena would instead look to further gamify the idea of real-world betting through a points and ranking system. Meta most recently boasted a daily active people (DAP) figure of 3.56 billion people as part of its Q1 2026 earnings report.
Arena would operate outside of Meta's current library of apps, which include Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, and Messenger. However, Meta would leverage the popularity of its apps in order to build its userbase, similar to the way in which the company has leveraged its Facebook install base for its Forum app.
Source: Apple
Whether Arena will come to pass and compete with Polymarket and Kalshi, which already have a Google Finance partnership in place, remains to be seen. We'll continue to watch this story as it develops.
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