AI SUPERCOMPUTER SET TO TRANSFORM NPFL ANALYSIS AHEAD OF NEW SEASON

Made In Africa Sport has introduced an artificial intelligence-powered supercomputer designed to analyse and predict matches throughout the 2026/27 Nigeria Premier Football League season.

The sports technology and media company said the system will assess all 380 fixtures involving the 20 participating clubs across the 38-matchday campaign. The NPFL season began on Friday, August 28, 2026.

Ahead of the opening fixtures, the supercomputer analysed the entire league schedule and produced projections covering expected scores, goals and possible match outcomes.

The system was developed using a database containing more than 8,000 historical NPFL matches. For each fixture, it runs 100,000 Monte Carlo simulations, resulting in 38 million simulations across the full league season.

According to Made In Africa Sport, the model will not only predict whether a team is likely to win, draw or lose but will also estimate each club's chances of finishing in every position on the final league table.

The projections will be updated after every matchday as new results become available and teams' performances change throughout the season.

The system considers several factors when generating its predictions, including recent form, head-to-head records, home advantage, goals scored and conceded, as well as transfer activity.

Recent performances are given the greatest weighting, with a team's last five matches playing a particularly important role in determining its projections.

The model also accounts for the difficulty of winning away from home in the NPFL, while previous meetings between clubs and their respective home and away records are incorporated into the calculations.

Transfer activity is another factor considered by the system, allowing it to account for changes in squad strength that may not yet be reflected in historical match results.

Made In Africa Sport said the supercomputer was specifically developed for the Nigerian league rather than being adapted from models designed for European or other international competitions.

The system also provides attacking, defensive and transfer-strength ratings for clubs. These ratings are measured against the average NPFL team, with a score of 1.00 representing the league average.

The company stressed that the technology is not intended to replace human football knowledge or judgement. Instead, it is designed to provide data-backed probabilities that can help journalists, clubs, analysts and supporters better understand the competition.

MIAS Executive Director, Enitan Obadina, said the project was created to introduce a stronger data foundation into discussions about Nigerian football, which he said are often based heavily on opinions and visual assessments.

He explained that the goal was to make large amounts of historical football data easier to understand and use when assessing teams and predicting possible outcomes.

Beyond individual matches, the supercomputer simulates the entire season to determine clubs' potential finishing positions and their chances of winning the league, qualifying for continental competitions or being relegated.

Made In Africa Sport said the 2026/27 project is the first major version of a broader plan to build reliable data infrastructure around African football.

The company intends to continue improving the model as more NPFL data becomes available, with the long-term goal of providing credible analytical tools for stakeholders across African football.

The launch marks another step towards greater use of artificial intelligence and data analytics in Nigerian football, offering a new way of assessing teams and following the progress of the NPFL season.