In an effort to potentially join the developing prediction markets race in the US, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has formed a small team within the organization to begin developing an application similar to Kalshi and Polymarket, currently known as Arena.
Two Meta employees made news outlets aware of the potential development, which would first rely on a video game-esque points system rather than have users wager real money, although Mets has yet to rule out the possibility at the time of writing.
Arena, as known internally at Meta, is one of “several” applications currently being tested by the organization, and would function independently of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
Meta intends to use such applications to drive its audience toward using the new Arena platform, however, having reached 3.56 billion daily active users as of April 2026.
The organization has yet to respond to questions related to Arena, and a release date has not yet been provided. According to some experts, prediction markets have the potential of reaching $1tn in annual trading volume by 2030.
Polymarket was accused of paying influencers to promote fake trades and fabricate winnings as part of marketing efforts conducted across the US on June 23, potentially leading to regulatory ramifications for the prediction markets operator.
According to a spokesperson for the operator, Polymarket will begin conducting a “comprehensive audit of active promotional content to ensure it complies with our standards, as well as applicable regulatory and legal disclosure requirements."
Despite the potential legal consequences, an investigation conducted by President Donald Trump’s administration is not currently expected, given the family’s ties to prediction markets and CFTC Chairman Michael Selig.
The Responsible Affiliates Quality Mark, in collaboration with the VNLOK, published a new market analysis on May 28 examining the scale of illegal online gambling advertising on Meta platforms
