Craig Pawson
Over the last 10 Premier League games Craig Pawson has officiated, the average is 4.00 cards a match — in line with the league average of 4.08. That splits 3.9 yellow and 0.1 red a game — a red in 1 of the 10. The away side sees more cards — 2.3 to 1.7 a game, a sharper split than the league's 0.3 gap. 5+ cards landed in 30% of those games (3 of 10), from a 16.2% foul-to-booking rate. Penalties come at about the league's rate: 26 awarded in 85 matches, 0.31 a game against a league average of 0.25. 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 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 | 4.08 |
| vs league | 0.97× | 1.00× |
| Foul-to-card conversion | 17.4% | 18.6% |
| Fouls / match | 22.7 | 21.9 |
| Penalties awarded / match | 0.31 | 0.25 |
| Penalties awarded (total) | 26 in 85 | — |
| Red cards shown | 9 | — |
| Matches on record | 85 (2 in 26/27) | — |
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 Tottenham5 Sep | 0–0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| Man Utd v Ipswich30 Aug | 5–2 | 4 1 pen | 4 | 0 | 1 | 19 |
| 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 1 pen | 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 |
● a red card▪ a penalty awarded in that match
Frequently asked
How many cards does Craig Pawson give per game?
Craig Pawson averages 3.94 cards a game across 85 Premier League matches — 3% below the league average of 4.08. On a Craig Pawson appointment, the model multiplies every player's booking chance by 0.97.
Is Craig Pawson 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 Craig Pawson runs at 17.4% against a league average of 18.6%. 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 85 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.