Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikkaus, hence the league's name.

Veikkausliiga was founded in 1990; before that the top division was called Mestaruussarja (championship series) since 1930 which was an amateur or semi-professional league.

[1] As with certain other cold-climate European countries, league matches in Finland are played in summer, with a schedule usually from April to October.

At the end of the season, the last team is relegated to Ykkönen (from 2024 to new-created tier 2, Ykkösliiga), whose winner is promoted to Veikkausliiga, and the second last team plays a two-leg play-off versus the Ykkönen (from 2024, versus Ykkösliiga) runner-up.

In late November 2024, it was announced the Europa Play-offs would be abolished for the 2025, and the league format would be changed.

Tampere United was dissolved in 2011 and Ilves, which in the meantime had bought the place of KooVee in second division, got promoted back to the highest league in 2015.

On 8 July 2023, Heini Hyvönen made history as she was the first female assistant referee in the league, in a match between HJK – FC Lahti.