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FiveThirtyEight's NBA predictions are gone. What to use now.

FiveThirtyEight's NBA forecast was the free, open win probability many fans, writers and students leaned on. It stopped after 2022-23, and its pages and data files now lead to ABC News. Here is what changed, and a free number for every game, graded in public, in the same CSV layout.

BY UĞUR ALTUNBAŞ · OCT 27, 2026

THE SHORT ANSWER

The last forecast was 2022-23. Its links now go to ABC News.

FiveThirtyEight's NBA forecast stopped after the 2022-23 season: the last row of its data is the Finals game of June 12, 2023. ABC News closed FiveThirtyEight on March 5, 2025, and since May 2026 its old pages and data files redirect to ABC News's politics section, so links and code that read them break. Clutch publishes a pregame win probability for every NBA game, sealed in public before tip and graded after the final, free to download in the same CSV layout: change one address and rename one column.

FiveThirtyEight's NBA addresses and where they lead now
OLD ADDRESSNOW
projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2025-nba-predictions/ABC News's politics page
projects.fivethirtyeight.com/nba-model/nba_elo_latest.csvABC News's politics page
projects.fivethirtyeight.com/nba-model/nba_elo.csvABC News's politics page

Checked on Oct 27, 2026. FiveThirtyEight's data repository on GitHub still points at the two files, so tutorials and class notebooks built on them stop at the first line.

Switch in one line

nba-538-format.csv holds every game of the 2026-27 season that has Clutch's number (56 so far), rebuilt four times a day. In Python:

import pandas as pd

# was: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/nba-model/nba_elo_latest.csv
games = pd.read_csv("https://clutchledger.com/data/nba-538-format.csv")

# code that reads elo_prob1 / elo_prob2 can point at Clutch's columns:
games = games.rename(columns={"clutch_prob1": "elo_prob1", "clutch_prob2": "elo_prob2"})

In R:

games <- read.csv("https://clutchledger.com/data/nba-538-format.csv")

The same games as JSON, with each call's result and seal, are on the open data page.

What's the same

One row per game, with FiveThirtyEight's first columns in their order: date, season as the year the season ends (2027 for 2026-27), neutral as 0 or 1, playoff blank in the regular season, team1 at home and team2 away with FiveThirtyEight's team codes (BRK, CHO, PHO), and score1 and score2 once the game is final.

What's different

The number. It is Clutch's, not Elo or RAPTOR: a model of each team's form, rest, travel and the injury report, blended with the market's price before tip. It sits in clutch_prob1 and clutch_prob2; there are no team-rating columns.

The years. This season only, from opening night. FiveThirtyEight's file ran from 1946 to the 2023 Finals, and the Internet Archive keeps copies of nba_elo.csv and nba_elo_latest.csv for anyone who needs those seasons; Clutch's sealed numbers start this season.

The schedule. A game's row appears once Clutch has a number for it, usually the morning of the game, not weeks ahead.

The record. Every number is sealed with a SHA-256 fingerprint in a public repository before tip, so no row can be changed after the final. How to check one →

How good is it?

This season so far Clutch's calls are 36–16 on 52 graded games, every one sealed before tip. Replayed over two seasons (2024-25 and 2025-26, 2,631 games), each game predicted only from the games before it, Clutch's probabilities were more accurate than ESPN BPI's in both seasons (clearly in 2025-26; in 2024-25 the gap was within the noise) by the accuracy score, which grades the probability itself. Against the market's final price they were level: as good as the market, not better. On winners alone, the three were within 1.3 points of each other each season.

The live record, band by band → · ESPN BPI and the market on the same games →

Other places to look

ESPN's BPI gives a win probability for every game on ESPN's site, and the market's price can be read as one too. Clutch's game pages show both beside its own number, and the Ledger grades all three on the same games every night. The Ledger →

Clutch's numbers on this page are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: credit Clutch and link to clutchledger.com. FiveThirtyEight is ABC News's; Clutch is not affiliated with FiveThirtyEight, ABC News, ESPN or the NBA.