Michael Oliver
Over the last 10 Premier League games Michael Oliver has officiated, the average is 3.40 cards a match — 17% below the league average of 4.08. That splits 3.3 yellow and 0.1 red a game — a red in 1 of the 10. Home and away sides fare about the same here (1.7 v 1.7 a game), where the league tilts +0.3 toward the away side. 5+ cards landed in 20% of those games (2 of 10), from a 14.5% foul-to-booking rate. Penalties come at about the league's rate: 22 awarded in 112 matches, 0.20 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 Michael Oliver 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 | Oliver | League avg |
|---|---|---|
| Cards / match | 3.67 | 4.08 |
| vs league | 0.90× | 1.00× |
| Foul-to-card conversion | 16.5% | 18.6% |
| Fouls / match | 22.2 | 21.9 |
| Penalties awarded / match | 0.20 | 0.25 |
| Penalties awarded (total) | 22 in 112 | — |
| Red cards shown | 14 | — |
| Matches on record | 114 (5 in 26/27) | — |
Recent matches
The last 8 Premier League games Michael Oliver took charge of — the actual card and foul counts a match-cards line settles on.
| Match | Score | Cards | Y | R | Pen | Fouls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bournemouth v Liverpool20 Sep | 0–1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | — | 24 |
| Man Utd v Man City13 Sep | 0–1 | 4 1 red | 3 | 1 | 0 | 27 |
| Hull City v Aston Villa5 Sep | 0–0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Chelsea v Brighton30 Aug | 4–3 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| Brentford v Tottenham22 Aug | 3–0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | — | 31 |
| Tottenham v Everton24 May | 1–0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 33 |
| Leeds v Brighton17 May | 1–0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| Everton v Man City4 May | 3–3 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
● a red card▪ a penalty awarded in that match
Frequently asked
How many cards does Michael Oliver give per game?
Michael Oliver averages 3.67 cards a game across 114 Premier League matches — 10% below the league average of 4.08. On a Michael Oliver appointment, the model multiplies every player's booking chance by 0.90.
Is Michael Oliver a strict referee?
No — more lenient than most. The honest measure is foul-to-card conversion — the share of fouls that become bookings — and Michael Oliver runs at 16.5% 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 Michael Oliver'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 Michael Oliver's card rate?
It rests on 114 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.