Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has tasked his company with developing a betting platform similar to prediction-market service Polymarket, where users can place wagers on a wide range of events, including sports, economic developments and politics, The New York Times reports, citing company employees.
It said Zuckerberg has assigned a small team of employees to begin work on a smartphone application.
The platform will initially operate like a video game, allowing users to place bets using virtual points rather than real money. One source told the newspaper that real-money wagering could be introduced at a later stage.
Internally, the project has been dubbed Arena and will operate separately from Meta’s existing platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Meta plans to use those services to promote the new betting application.
Sources told the newspaper that work on the project is an experiment, but has been given priority.
However, the NYT noted that the application may ultimately never be released.
Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Polymarket had been paying influencers to showcase purported successes and large winnings in videos aimed at attracting new users. According to the report, some users posted videos claiming to have won substantial sums by betting that US President Donald Trump would say the word “McDonald’s” during the month.
The newspaper said none of those bets were real, adding that the number of such videos increased following the start of the FIFA World Cup.
By Bakhtiyar Abbasov
