Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has asked top company executives to investigate potential partnerships with two prominent prediction market platforms — Polymarket and Kalshi — as Meta works to build its own similar application, the New York Times reported Friday. The newspaper cited three employees who were familiar with the situation.
Neither Meta nor Kalshi responded to requests for comment from Reuters, and Polymarket declined to offer any statement. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the details of the report.
Meta executives have indicated that Arena, the company’s prediction market app currently in development, will set itself apart from Polymarket and Kalshi by avoiding real-money wagering. Instead, Arena will use a virtual currency similar to points found in video games, according to the report.
Prediction markets gained enormous attention during the 2024 U.S. presidential election and have since grown into a recognized investment category, allowing people to place bets on everything from government interest rate decisions to the outcomes of sports tournaments.
However, the platforms have also come under growing scrutiny. Suspiciously well-timed trades made before major policy announcements by U.S. President Donald Trump may have generated millions of dollars in gains for anonymous traders, raising serious questions about the integrity of these markets.
According to the report, Zuckerberg has set his sights on adults between 18 and 34 years old as Arena’s primary audience, with an ambitious goal of attracting at least 100 million monthly active users — referred to as “predictors” — to the platform.
Arena is still in internal testing phases and may never be publicly launched, the Times noted. The report also indicated that Meta eventually plans to fold elements of Arena into both Facebook and Messenger.
The Times had first reported earlier in the week that Zuckerberg recently assembled a small team within the company to develop a smartphone app modeled after Polymarket and Kalshi.
