Gavin Ward
Over the last 10 Championship games Gavin Ward has officiated, the average is 3.40 cards a match — 15% below the league average of 4.01. That's 3.4 yellow a game, with no red card in the 10. The away side sees more cards — 1.9 to 1.5 a game, in line with the league's 0.4 gap. 5+ cards landed in 50% of those games (5 of 10), from a 15.9% foul-to-booking rate. Penalties come at about the league's rate: 16 awarded in 106 matches, 0.15 a game against a league average of 0.17. These are raw match figures from those games, not odds.
Match cards last 10 games
Career profile
The two numbers that matter are vs league — the multiplier the model applies to a player's booking chance — and conversion, the share of fouls Gavin Ward turns into bookings. Conversion, not the raw foul count, is where a referee's real card tendency lives. Career figures across every Championship season on record.
| Measure | Ward | League avg |
|---|---|---|
| Cards / match | 3.73 | 4.01 |
| vs league | 0.93× | 1.00× |
| Foul-to-card conversion | 17.8% | 18.3% |
| Fouls / match | 21.0 | 21.9 |
| Penalties awarded / match | 0.15 | 0.17 |
| Penalties awarded (total) | 16 in 106 | — |
| Red cards shown | 14 | — |
| Matches on record | 107 (4 in 26/27) | — |
Recent matches
The last 8 Championship games Gavin Ward took charge of — the actual card and foul counts a match-cards line settles on.
| Match | Score | Cards | Y | R | Pen | Fouls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wrexham v Southampton19 Sep | 2–1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | — | 15 |
| Burnley v Bristol City5 Sep | 1–2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Blackburn Rovers v Queens Park Rangers29 Aug | 1–2 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| Sheffield United v Birmingham City15 Aug | 0–0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| Hull City v Millwall8 May | 0–0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| Ipswich v Queens Park Rangers2 May | 3–0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| Portsmouth v Leicester18 Apr | 1–0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 23 |
| Wrexham v Southampton7 Apr | 1–5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 22 |
● a red card▪ a penalty awarded in that match
Frequently asked
How many cards does Gavin Ward give per game?
Gavin Ward averages 3.73 cards a game across 107 Championship matches — 7% below the league average of 4.01. On a Gavin Ward appointment, the model multiplies every player's booking chance by 0.93.
Is Gavin Ward a strict referee?
No — slightly more lenient than most. The honest measure is foul-to-card conversion — the share of fouls that become bookings — and Gavin Ward runs at 17.8% against a league average of 18.3%. Foul counts barely vary between officials; the rate at which a foul becomes a booking is where referees genuinely differ.
Does Gavin Ward's record change bet builder card prices?
It should. The referee is the single biggest factor in the to-be-carded market, and the appointment is public before kick-off — so a strict official on a combative player is the archetypal card edge. The player cards guide walks through exactly how the model turns a tendency like this into a price.
How reliable is Gavin Ward's card rate?
It rests on 107 career matches, a solid record. The model shrinks a referee's tendency toward the league average when the sample is thin and discounts its own confidence for officials with young records, so a number like this never gets trusted beyond what the evidence earns.
Rates shown are figures from public match data for context; the model adds shrinkage and an opponent factor, and discounts its confidence for thin referee records, before flagging any card as value. It compares against the bookmaker's price as offered — card markets are priced one side only, so that price still carries the bookmaker's margin. 18+ — please gamble responsibly.