UEFA Europa League

Ararat-Armenia 1–4 Sparta Praha

Final score · Half-time 0–2 · All of yesterday's results

Our backtest says that, with the sharp market making Sparta Praha the most likely outcome at 60% (fair odds 1.67), Matchbook offered 1.68, a gap of +0.8% above the fair price (Micro-edge). This was reconstructed on 26 September 2026, not recorded at the time. Recent form — Ararat-Armenia: WWLWD; Sparta Praha: WLLWW.

After the whistle

Match stats

Match statsArarat-ArmeniaSparta Praha
Possession %3367
Shots1323
Shots on target28
Corners213
Yellow cards30
Red cards00
Fouls1619
Offsides22
Goalkeeper saves31

What the market said before kick-off

  • Ararat-Armenia win 21% did not happen
  • Draw 25% did not happen
  • Sparta Praha win 55% happened
  • Over 2.5 goals 59% happened
  • Both teams score 60% happened

Pinnacle closing price with the margin removed, next to what happened. It is the market's view, not a tip: an outcome priced at 30% happens about 3 times in 10.

Referee: Mohammed Al-Hakim, Sweden · Venue: Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium, Yerevan

Next matches

Line-ups, events and match stats: API-Football.

Starting line-ups

Ararat-Armenia 4-3-3

  1. João Bravim GK
  2. Junior Julio DF
  3. Alexandros Malis DF
  4. Bruno Wilson DF
  5. Edgar Grigoryan DF
  6. Hugo Oliveira MF
  7. Karen Muradyan MF
  8. Bernardo Dias MF
  9. Artur Serobyan FW
  10. Sandro Lima FW
  11. Zidane Banjaqui FW

Sparta Praha 4-3-3

  1. Jakub Surovčík GK
  2. Martin Suchomel DF
  3. Loïc Mbe Soh DF
  4. Tobias Kvalvagnes Guddal DF
  5. Matěj Ryneš DF
  6. Adam Karabec MF
  7. Roman Macek MF
  8. Hugo Sochurek MF
  9. John Mercado FW
  10. Jonatan Braut Brunes FW
  11. Josimar Alcócer FW

Pinnacle, margin removed (home / draw / away): 21 / 25 / 55% when the line-ups came out, 21 / 25 / 55% at kick-off. The price barely moved after the line-ups.

In the big leagues, line-up news is usually already in the price by the time it is official.

The most likely result is not the same as value: value is where a bookmaker pays more than the fair price, and the two can point to different outcomes.

Value opportunity before kick-off Micro-edge

2 Sparta Praha @ 1.68
Bookmaker Matchbook
Price observed
Rule would have fired (backtest) @ 1.68 (Matchbook) · backtest — reconstructed afterwards
Market 1X2 (match result)
Availability and exact price varied by country and over time.
Fair price 1.67
Matchbook 1.68
Confidence: High
Value-bet result Won · 2 +0.68u

Market discrepancy: before kick-off, Sparta Praha (2) was priced at 1.68 by a soft bookmaker, above the fair price of 1.67 — a +0.8% gap. An observation about the price, not an instruction to bet.

The gap was smaller than 1.5% — likely to vanish in rounding, latency or line movement. We logged it for transparency, but it was not a strong signal.

A single result where a bookmaker pays above the fair price — separate from the main prediction below.

Most likely result

2 Away win 60%
1X2
Sharp, recorded18%22%60%
Other estimates
Our model29%28%43%

Sharp, recorded = Pinnacle when we logged the match (it can be days old). Our model = our own estimate, which on average predicts worse than the market.

Fair odds of the pick (as recorded) 1.67
Sharp odds recorded for this prediction (Pinnacle) 5.05 / 4.15 / 1.62
Market Gap +0.8%
Confidence High
Model agreement Low

Confidence reflects only the sharp probability of the selection: high from 50%, medium from 40%, low below. It says how likely the result is, not how big the price gap is. Model agreement shows how close our own model is to the sharp market on this selection — when it is Low, the market and our model disagree, so treat the flag with more caution.

Prediction result Won · 2

Value lifecycle Settled

Would have been flagged (backtest) ·
2 Sparta Praha · soft 1.68 (Matchbook) · fair 1.67 · edge +0.8%
Opening sharp
1.68
At close
1.83 · CLV -8.1%
Result
Won +0.68u Backtest

“Detected” is the moment the flag was first shown on the site and written to our ledger (recorded live since 26 September 2026). For earlier matches the flag was reconstructed afterwards from the prices we had stored, and the time shown is when the rule would have fired: a backtest, not a live record. When the gap closes, we say so instead of pretending the value is still there.

Match context

The last 2 head-to-head meetings we tracked split 0–0–2 (Ararat-Armenia wins – draws – Sparta Praha wins).

Ararat-Armenia scored 1.4 and conceded 0.6 across their last 5 matches in our results database; Sparta Praha scored 2.2 and conceded 1.2 in 5.

Since opening around 1.68, the sharp market price on Sparta Praha has drifted to 1.83 — the market has moved against this outcome.

These figures come from our own tracked results and odds snapshots for this fixture — not from a generic stats feed.

Market-relevant trends

Ararat-Armenia has won its last 2 matches.
No value Already reflected in the fair price — no value on Ararat-Armenia here.
Sparta Praha is averaging 2.2 goals scored over its last 5 matches.
No value Already reflected in the fair price — no value on Sparta Praha here.

We show the trend and whether it is already in the price. Most sites show the streak and let you assume you should bet it.

Why this price?

Ararat-Armenia
W W L W D
avg 1.4 scored · 0.6 conceded (last 5)
Sparta Praha
W L L W W
avg 2.2 scored · 1.2 conceded (last 5)
Recent head-to-head
14 Aug 2025 Ararat-Armenia 1–2 Sparta Praha
07 Aug 2025 Sparta Praha 4–1 Ararat-Armenia

Recent form and head-to-head from our settled results — context behind the fair price. The price itself comes from the sharp market, not from these alone.

Public, timestamped record

Logged before kick-off
Prediction record
Pick 2 · Away win
Odds recorded for the prediction 1.62
Closing odds 1.79
Prediction CLV -9.5%
Result Won
Value-bet record

Backtest: reconstructed on 26 September 2026 by applying today’s rule to the prices stored before kick-off. It was not shown in this form at the time; its seal was created at the reconstruction, which for matches already played was after the match.

Value selection 2 · Sparta Praha
Odds when the rule would have fired (reconstructed) 1.68
Fair odds 1.67
Closing odds 1.83
Value CLV -8.1%
Profit (units) +0.68
Result Won
Prediction hash — integrity fingerprint 33b8f4254ce88bab

This hash fingerprints the prediction as recorded: teams, kick-off time, our model probabilities, the Pinnacle prices recorded for it (at logging or, if there were none, the first quoted after logging and before kick-off, which can be written in after the match) and the log time. A later edit to any of them would change it (a rescheduled kick-off changes it too). It does not cover closing prices, the result or the value-bet record above; value flags recorded live have their own seal in the public record. Verify in the public record →

Every day a snapshot of the full public record is published to a public Git repository and timestamped with OpenTimestamps. Timestamped snapshots are never overwritten and the Git history shows any difference, so a later change to a past row is visible by comparing two snapshots. The corrections file lists the corrections we announced. Verify on the public log →

Since 20 June 2026 the public record is snapshotted daily (07:40 Bucharest time: 04:40 UTC in summer time, 05:40 UTC in winter) to an external log. A prediction is externally timestamped before kick-off only if it was in a snapshot taken before the match; predictions logged on match day, or whose Pinnacle price was added after logging, first appear there after kick-off. Value flags have been recorded live only since 26 September 2026; earlier value flags were reconstructed on that date.

Methodology

The fair price comes from the sharp market itself: we strip the margin from Pinnacle-style odds — the most accurate public predictor in existence — and use our calibrated Elo + form model as a cross-check and as the fallback where no sharp price exists. Value is flagged only where a softer bookmaker prices a selection above that fair price, never on long shots (implied probability under 30%), and never beyond a plausible band. Most of the time there is no value — and we say so.

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