Stephen Martin
Over the last 10 Championship games Stephen Martin has officiated, the average is 5.20 cards a match — 30% above the league average of 4.01. That's 5.2 yellow a game, with no red card in the 10. The away side sees more cards — 2.9 to 2.3 a game, a sharper split than the league's 0.4 gap. 5+ cards landed in 50% of those games (5 of 10), from a 23.7% foul-to-booking rate. Penalties come at about the league's rate: 12 awarded in 96 matches, 0.12 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 Stephen Martin 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 | Martin | League avg |
|---|---|---|
| Cards / match | 4.50 | 4.01 |
| vs league | 1.12× | 1.00× |
| Foul-to-card conversion | 19.5% | 18.4% |
| Fouls / match | 23.1 | 21.9 |
| Penalties awarded / match | 0.12 | 0.17 |
| Penalties awarded (total) | 12 in 96 | — |
| Red cards shown | 7 | — |
| Matches on record | 96 (24 in 25/26) | — |
Recent matches
The last 8 Championship games Stephen Martin took charge of — the actual card and foul counts a match-cards line settles on.
| Match | Score | Cards | Y | R | Pen | Fouls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preston North End v Southampton2 May | 1–3 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| Hull City v Birmingham City18 Apr | 1–1 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 25 |
| Oxford United v Watford11 Apr | 2–0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| Norwich v Portsmouth3 Apr | 1–1 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| Swansea City v Coventry City21 Mar | 0–3 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 25 |
| Middlesbrough v Bristol City14 Mar | 1–1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| Wrexham v Hull City10 Mar | 1–2 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 20 |
| Millwall v Portsmouth21 Feb | 1–3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
Frequently asked
How many cards does Stephen Martin give per game?
Stephen Martin averages 4.50 cards a game across 96 Championship matches — 12% above the league average of 4.01. On a Stephen Martin appointment, the model multiplies every player's booking chance by 1.12.
Is Stephen Martin a strict referee?
Slightly, yes. The honest measure is foul-to-card conversion — the share of fouls that become bookings — and Stephen Martin runs at 19.5% against a league average of 18.4%. Foul counts barely vary between officials; the rate at which a foul becomes a booking is where referees genuinely differ.
Does Stephen Martin'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 Stephen Martin's card rate?
It rests on 96 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, an opponent factor and de-vigging, and discounts its confidence for thin referee records, before flagging any card as value. 18+ — please gamble responsibly.