Meta is developing a standalone app called Arena to enter the fast-growing prediction market category, according to a report by The New York Times. The report says CEO Mark Zuckerberg has directed the company to assemble a small internal team for the project, which is being built outside Meta’s main platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
Arena is described as a direct move against platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi. These services let users make predictions on sports, elections, and entertainment outcomes, and they have turned into one of the internet��s faster-growing segments. Meta’s push suggests it sees prediction markets as a format with strong engagement and distribution potential.
Points first, real-money betting still on the table
Two unnamed employees familiar with the matter told The New York Times that Arena will not allow real-money betting at launch. Instead, the app is expected to begin with a points-based system similar to mechanics used in games. That setup would give Meta a lower-friction way to test user behavior and product appeal while keeping regulatory exposure more limited in the early stage.
The same report says Meta has not ruled out adding real-money betting later. It also notes that the company could use its massive traffic base to feed users into the app. Meta’s daily active user count was cited at more than 3.56 billion, a scale that could create serious competitive pressure for existing prediction market operators if Arena is rolled out broadly.
A familiar Meta playbook centered on new standalone apps
The reported strategy fits Meta’s long-running pattern of watching new online behaviors and moving quickly to build products around them. The article points to Meta’s earlier success with Stories, a format it adopted after Snapchat popularized it. With concerns that growth on Meta’s core social apps may be reaching a ceiling, prediction markets appear to be one of the areas the company is now testing as a new business line.
The report also says Meta is experimenting with other standalone apps internally. One of them, called Meta Photos, is said to be under development and will integrate AI to help users create new forms of media content.