KuPS v SJK — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Veikkausliiga · Friday, 8 May 2026. Final score 0–0 (half-time 0–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 66% for over 2.5 goals. This match is older than our frozen ratings ledger, which keeps 30 days, so that figure is a reconstruction from pre-match data rather than a number we published at the time — a distinction worth making, because only the frozen ones prove what we actually said beforehand.

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Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals66%34%Over
Over 3.5 goals45%55%Over
Both teams to score64%36%Yes

The result model puts KuPS at 58%, the draw at 20% and SJK at 22%, from expected goals of 2.36 and 1.41.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Veikkausliiga has produced over 2.5 goals in 65% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. KuPS have 2 in 6 this season (1 of 3 at home), SJK 2 in 5 (1 of 2 away). Those records are pulled toward the league rate with the weight of about 24 matches — enough that two or three unusual games cannot swing a rating — giving 58% and 60%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 6 and 5 games played this season, last season's rates are still blended in and fade out entirely by game 40 — the point at which our testing showed they stop adding accuracy. A single season is part luck, so each club's record is first pulled toward the league average by 34 games' weight. That moves the two figures to 60% and 70%.

The mix. Weighted 40% home side, 40% away side and 20% league — the split that beat every alternative across 30,582 matches of testing — that gives 65%.

Head to head. These sides have met 10 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 30%. That nudges the number 5% of the way toward the head-to-head pattern — deliberately small, because fixtures change more than reputations do — landing on 63%.

Goal expectation. Separately a Poisson model built from attack and defence strength — using real expected-goals data where the league has it — puts this match at 73%, from expected goals of 2.36 for KuPS and 1.41 for SJK. Folding in 30% of that view gives 66%.

This breakdown is generated from the same inputs the rating uses, so it cannot describe a calculation we did not perform. The full model is set out in the methodology.

Season form

TeamGamesO2.5O3.5BTTS
KuPS633%33%67%
SJK540%0%40%

Head to head

27 Oct 25SJK 0–1 KuPSU2.5
23 Sept 25KuPS 3–2 SJKO2.5
31 Aug 25SJK 1–1 KuPSU2.5
2 May 25KuPS 1–0 SJKU2.5
5 Oct 24SJK 0–1 KuPSU2.5
4 Aug 24KuPS 2–1 SJKO2.5

More: KuPS season stats · SJK season stats · Veikkausliiga table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.