James Bell
Over the last 10 Championship games James Bell has officiated, the average is 3.40 cards a match — 15% below the league average of 4.01. That splits 3.3 yellow and 0.1 red a game — a red in 1 of the 10. The away side sees more cards — 1.8 to 1.6 a game, flatter than the league's 0.4 gap. 5+ cards landed in 10% of those games (1 of 10), from a 17.8% foul-to-booking rate. Penalties come at about the league's rate: 12 awarded in 70 matches, 0.17 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 James Bell 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 | Bell | League avg |
|---|---|---|
| Cards / match | 3.93 | 4.01 |
| vs league | 0.98× | 1.00× |
| Foul-to-card conversion | 19.3% | 18.3% |
| Fouls / match | 20.4 | 21.9 |
| Penalties awarded / match | 0.17 | 0.17 |
| Penalties awarded (total) | 12 in 70 | — |
| Red cards shown | 9 | — |
| Matches on record | 70 (3 in 26/27) | — |
Recent matches
The last 8 Championship games James Bell took charge of — the actual card and foul counts a match-cards line settles on.
| Match | Score | Cards | Y | R | Pen | Fouls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swansea City v Burnley12 Sep | 3–1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| Derby County v West Brom9 Sep | 0–1 | 4 1 red | 3 | 1 | 0 | 21 |
| Bristol City v Portsmouth29 Aug | 2–1 | 3 1 pen | 3 | 0 | 1 | 21 |
| Charlton Athletic v Queens Park Rangers6 Feb | 0–0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| Birmingham City v Stoke City24 Jan | 1–1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| Bristol City v Portsmouth1 Jan | 5–0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Middlesbrough v Blackburn Rovers26 Dec | 0–0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Norwich v Southampton13 Dec | 2–1 | 4 1 pen | 4 | 0 | 1 | 25 |
● a red card▪ a penalty awarded in that match
Frequently asked
How many cards does James Bell give per game?
James Bell averages 3.93 cards a game across 70 Championship matches — roughly below the league average of 4.01. On a James Bell appointment, the model multiplies every player's booking chance by 0.98.
Is James Bell a strict referee?
Slightly, yes. The honest measure is foul-to-card conversion — the share of fouls that become bookings — and James Bell runs at 19.3% 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 James Bell'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 James Bell's card rate?
It rests on 70 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.