Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg has directed a small team to create a standalone app similar to Polymarket and Kalshi, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing two employees with knowledge of the plans.

The app, known internally as “Arena,” would likely run on a video game-style points system rather than real money, though the company reportedly has not ruled out cash betting later.

CNBC separately confirmed the project with a source familiar with the plans.

Why Zuckerberg Wants In

Meta has reach that the competition could only dream of. It can put Arena in front of 3.56 billion daily users.

Arena would run on points instead of cash. Sceptics may argue that a prediction market with nothing to win on it is closer to a poll than a trade, and Meta has been here before. Its 2020 app Forecast used the same play-money setup and folded in 2022.

Forecast was not a one-off. Meta has launched and buried a long line of standalone apps, from TikTok clone Lasso to Pinterest-style Hobbi, Cameo-like Super and Substack rival Bulletin, most of them through its New Product Experimentation unit. Threads is the one that stuck.

The Stocks That Actually Moved

META barely budged. The selling hit the incumbents instead.

DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ:DKNG) and Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD) both fell, with investors treating Arena as one more threat to operators leaning into event contracts. DraftKings has shed roughly 30% this year as Polymarket and Kalshi eat into its handle.

The sector keeps setting records regardless, booking $28.4 billion in May volume, a fourth straight monthly high. Bernstein estimates the market may reach $1 trillion in annual volume by the end of the decade.

Whether Arena ships is itself close to a coin flip, with insiders calling it experimental. For now, the real downside sits with the names already taking real money.

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Kalshi and Benzinga have an existing data collaboration agreement