Craig Pawson
Over his last 10 Premier League games, Craig Pawson has averaged 3.60 cards a match — 12% below the league average of 4.09. That splits 3.5 yellow and 0.1 red a game — a red in 1 of the 10. The away side sees more of them — 1.9 to 1.7 a game, flatter than the league's 0.3 gap. 5+ cards landed in 30% of them (3 of 10), and he turned 15.9% of fouls into bookings. He points to the spot at about the league's rate: 25 penalties in 83 matches, 0.30 a game against a league average of 0.25. These are raw match figures from games he took charge of, 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 Craig Pawson turns into bookings. Conversion, not the raw foul count, is where a referee's real card tendency lives. Career figures across every Premier League season on record.
| Measure | Pawson | League avg |
|---|---|---|
| Cards / match | 3.94 | 4.09 |
| vs league | 0.96× | 1.00× |
| Foul-to-card conversion | 17.5% | 18.7% |
| Fouls / match | 22.5 | 21.9 |
| Penalties awarded / match | 0.30 | 0.25 |
| Penalties awarded (total) | 25 in 83 | — |
| Red cards shown | 9 | — |
| Matches on record | 83 (21 in 25/26) | — |
Recent matches
The last 8 Premier League games Craig Pawson took charge of — the actual card and foul counts a match-cards line settles on.
| Match | Score | Cards | Y | R | Pen | Fouls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nottingham Forest v Bournemouth24 May | 1–1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| Liverpool v Chelsea9 May | 1–1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 34 |
| Brentford v West Ham2 May | 3–0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 20 |
| Brighton v Chelsea21 Apr | 3–0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 21 |
| Bournemouth v Brentford3 Mar | 0–0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| Wolves v Aston Villa27 Feb | 2–0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 32 |
| Sunderland v Fulham22 Feb | 1–3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 19 |
| Liverpool v Man City8 Feb | 1–2 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 29 |
Frequently asked
How many cards does Craig Pawson give per game?
Craig Pawson averages 3.94 cards a game across 83 Premier League matches — 4% below the league average of 4.09. When he's appointed, the model multiplies every player's booking chance by 0.96.
Is Craig Pawson a strict referee?
No — slightly more lenient than most. The honest measure is foul-to-card conversion — the share of fouls he turns into bookings — and Craig Pawson runs at 17.5% against a league average of 18.7%. Foul counts barely vary between officials; the rate at which a foul becomes a booking is where referees genuinely differ.
Does Craig Pawson'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 Craig Pawson's card rate?
It rests on 83 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.