Football ratings

Saturday 3 October 2026 · times UK

The model's strongest calls

Nothing clears the bar today. The thresholds are set where the model has historically been as good as it claims — home win 70%, away win 60% — and a quiet day is a real answer, not a gap.

Goals — supporting, not headline

These are calibrated — a 65% call lands about 65% of the time. But the model separates high- from low-scoring matches far less sharply than it separates winners, so there is less information behind a goals number than a result one.

61%Albacete v Eibar — under 2.5 goals13:00 · market 50% · this strong, 61% land (2,190 cases)
56%Almeria v Burgos — under 2.5 goals15:15 · market 51% · this strong, 58% land (10,295 cases)

Every fixture

League One
Burton Albion v Huddersfield15:00
HomeDrawAway
Model262847
Market262550
Over 2.5Under 2.5
Model5248
Market5248
Under 4.5 goals: 87%  ·  happens 86% of the time anyway
Leyton Orient v Plymouth15:00
HomeDrawAway
Model302842
Market262548
Over 2.5Under 2.5
Model5248
Market5842
Under 4.5 goals: 87%  ·  happens 86% of the time anyway
Model is 6 points below the market on away win (pinnacle). Worth a look at why.
Reading v Bradford15:00
HomeDrawAway
Model542719
Market452828
Over 2.5Under 2.5
Model5050
Market4951
Under 4.5 goals: 88%  ·  happens 86% of the time anyway
Model is 10 points above the market on home win (pinnacle). Worth a look at why.
La Liga 2
Albacete v Eibar13:00
HomeDrawAway
Model363133
Market332839
Over 2.5Under 2.5
Model3961
Market5050
Under 4.5 goals: 92%  ·  happens 86% of the time anyway
Almeria v Burgos15:15
HomeDrawAway
Model472924
Market602416
Over 2.5Under 2.5
Model4456
Market4951
Under 4.5 goals: 90%  ·  happens 86% of the time anyway
Model is 13 points below the market on home win (pinnacle). Worth a look at why.
Cadiz v Leganes17:30
HomeDrawAway
Model292942
Market323137
Over 2.5Under 2.5
Model4753
Market4159
Under 4.5 goals: 88%  ·  happens 86% of the time anyway
Sabadell v FC Andorra17:30
HomeDrawAway
Model492823
Over 2.5Under 2.5
Model4753
Under 4.5 goals: 88%  ·  happens 86% of the time anyway
No market price yet — bookmakers usually post a few days out.

How the calls did

✕Eldense 4–1 Oviedo under 2.5 goals 58%

0 of 1 settled since yesterday · 232 of 349 since the model went live.

Every match, for the record

The model rates the whole card, not just the calls, and learns from all of it. Judged as probabilities rather than picks — a 38% favourite losing is the model working, not failing.

·Resulttop pick right 0/1, we claimed 39% · 335/706 all-time
what actually happenedwe gave it 30% on average
·Over/under 2.5top pick right 0/1, we claimed 58% · 404/706 all-time
what actually happenedwe gave it 42% on average

A well-calibrated model's average claim matches how often it happens. That is the number Rule 9 gates on, and it is tracked for results and goals alike whether or not a fixture ever produced a call.

What these numbers are. The model's own estimate of how likely each result is, from form, Elo, rest, shots and xG as they stood at 06:00 UK on match day. One bivariate Poisson produces all of them, so the result and the goals figures share one underlying view of the match. Each published figure is then calibrated against what actually happened in past matches, one market at a time — so they agree closely but are not forced to agree exactly. Market figures are the bookmaker's prices with their margin removed, so the two are comparable.

What they are not. Across 57,633 out-of-sample fixtures the market separated matches better than the model in every league, every season, every outcome and every confidence band — 24 slices, no exceptions, re-tested in August 2026 on the current model. This is a second opinion, not an edge. Where it earns its keep is honesty about its own confidence: when it says 74%, that happens about 74% of the time.

Why a call appears. Thresholds — home 70% · away 60% · over 60% · under 55% — sit where the model has historically been as good as its claim. Raising them would surface fewer calls and be less accurate about them, because its confidence above those levels is inflated everywhere except home wins. Draws are never flagged: the highest one ever rated was 62%.

7 rated · 0 not rated · model goals_v7_cal · built 2026-10-03 07:07 UK