SJK v KuPS — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Veikkausliiga · Saturday, 18 July 2026. Final score 0–2 (half-time 0–2). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 56% 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 goals56%44%Over
Over 3.5 goals36%64%no pick
Both teams to score58%42%Yes

The result model puts SJK at 31%, the draw at 28% and KuPS at 41%, from expected goals of 1.1 and 1.33.

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. SJK have 8 in 15 this season (4 of 7 at home), KuPS 7 in 15 (3 of 7 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 60% and 57%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 15 and 15 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 67% and 59%.

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 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 61%.

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 44%, from expected goals of 1.1 for SJK and 1.33 for KuPS. Folding in 30% of that view gives 56%.

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
SJK1553%33%60%
KuPS1547%27%67%

Head to head

8 May 26KuPS 0–0 SJKU2.5
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

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