Meta’s Takes App Tests Prediction Markets on Employees, Using Points Instead of Money
Takes runs on virtual cred while Kalshi and Polymarket fight state challenges, and none of our sources say whether it will launch or whether cred could ever become money.
Meta is testing a prediction-market app on its own staff, the Wall Street Journal reported this week.
The app, Takes, lets employees stake virtual points on real-world outcomes, such as whether Tim Cook will become Nvidia’s next CEO after Hunag’s exit. No money changes hands.
Meta declined to comment, and nobody has said if it will ever reach the public.
That makes the test the story: it asks what people do with a prediction market when nothing real is at stake, and what Meta learns before it meets the legal fights next door.
What employees are being asked to call
Takes is employee-only. One question asked about Cook would become Nvidia’s next chief executive, while another reportedly asked who would win the quiz show Jeopardy. So far the app looks closer to office banter with a scoreboard than to a trading floor.
Nothing public says how long the test has run, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who keeps pushing agentic AI in front of investors, has never publicly mentioned the app.
Why points matter when the legal fights sit next door
Prediction apps like Kalshi and Polymarket have grown popular, especially with younger users, which is the audience Meta has worked to keep, despite mounting youth digital safety scrutiny.
Both face legal challenges from several US states over whether they amount to illegal gambling.
Takes, built on points, sits outside that argument on its face. But no source says that’s Meta’s reason, and none says whether Takes would fall under federal derivatives rules.
Regulatory scrutiny is growing, with US lawmakers pushing limits on officials’ prediction-market trading and the CFTC challenging state-level enforcement.
What a Cashless Test Can and Cannot Prove
A points-only version can answer the questions Meta cares about first. Do people come back? Which topics pull them in? Does being right for status keep anyone guessing after the novelty fades?
It can’t answer whether they’d risk real money, and it can’t show how a regulator would respond to a product that did let them.
Meta isn’t promising anything. Meta often tests products internally before release, much like some of its experimental workplace prototypes that remain strictly behind closed doors. So the names and features can change, and Arena became Takes already.
Source: Exclusive | Meta Testing New Prediction-Market App With Employees
