KuPS v Ilves — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Veikkausliiga · Tuesday, 23 June 2026. Final score 4–3 (half-time 4–1). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 63% 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 goals63%37%Over
Over 3.5 goals41%59%no pick
Both teams to score62%38%Yes

The result model puts KuPS at 56%, the draw at 22% and Ilves at 22%, from expected goals of 2.06 and 1.22.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Veikkausliiga has produced over 2.5 goals in 64% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. KuPS have 5 in 13 this season (3 of 7 at home), Ilves 8 in 12 (5 of 6 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 55% and 65%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 13 and 12 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 58% and 68%.

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 63%.

Head to head. These sides have met 9 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 67%. 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 64%, from expected goals of 2.06 for KuPS and 1.22 for Ilves. Folding in 30% of that view gives 63%.

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
KuPS1338%15%69%
Ilves1267%58%58%

Head to head

4 Apr 26Ilves 1–3 KuPSO2.5
16 Oct 25Ilves 1–1 KuPSU2.5
14 Sept 25KuPS 2–4 IlvesO2.5
14 Jun 25KuPS 0–3 IlvesO2.5
21 May 25Ilves 3–0 KuPSO2.5
24 Sept 24Ilves 1–0 KuPSU2.5

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