NBA Referee Statistics
Referees control all of the games we love. We all know the feeling of a fast break getting whistled back for a phantom foul, or watching the other team shoot interminable amounts of free throws on bad calls. But, as a bettor, referees are a resource, and it can be very important to watch them like hawks to take advantage of any tendencies they might have. Referees make mistakes, like all of us, but, also like all of us, they don’t make their mistakes randomly – there are patterns to certain referees, and those patterns can influence the outcomes of games.
Certain referees have certain tendencies, and when examining the games those referees were involved in, you can get a sense of how the game could play out from a betting perspective. Some of those advantages in the past have even caused large line movement at USA online sportsbooks. Recent examples that have gained the public eye have been Scott Foster refereeing Chris Paul games and Eric Lewis allegedly supporting the Boston Celtics. Regardless of what you think of those scenarios, paying attention to the refs for each game can give you an edge in many ways.
Which NBA Refs Call The Most Fouls?
The number of foul calls in one or two games by a referee can be attributed to a small sample size, but season-long NBA referee stats don’t have that sample size issue. Using this information is a great way to gain an edge at online NBA sportsbooks that accept US players. Refs that call fouls at a significantly higher rate raise the likelihood that a game goes over, with the opposite true for refs that rarely blow the whistle.
NBA Referees That Called The Most Fouls Per Game In The 2022-23 Playoffs
- Lauren Holtkamp: 50 Fouls Called Per Game
- Natalie Sago: 49 Fouls Called Per Game
- Michael Smith: 46 Fouls Called Per Game
- Eric Dalen: 45.7 Fouls Called Per Game
- Eric Lewis: 45 Fouls Called Per Game
- Pat Fraher: 44.7 Fouls Called Per Game
- Brian Forte: 44.3 Fouls Called Per Game
- Sean Wright: 43.5 Fouls Called Per Game
- Zach Zarba: 43.3 Fouls Called Per Game
- Sean Wright: 43 Fouls Called Per Game
NBA Referees That Called The Least Fouls Per Game In The 2022-23 Playoffs
- Jacyn Goble: 35.5 Fouls Called Per Game
- Scott Foster: 35 Fouls Called Per Game
- Scott Twardoski: 35 Fouls Called Per Game
- Michael Smith: 34.5 Fouls Called Per Game
- Bill Kennedy: 34.4 Fouls Called Per Game
- Nick Buchert: 34 Fouls Called Per Game
- Sean Corbin: 33 Fouls Called Per Game
- Marc Davis: 31 Fouls Called Per Game
- Brian Forte: 25 Fouls Called Per Game
- Mark Lindsay: 19 Fouls Called Per Game
NBA Referees Over/Under Effect
Some referees tend to let players play, and some referees tend to award large amounts of free throws. These tendencies can affect the over/under for a game – large amounts of free throws inflate scoring, for example. By contrast, some players and teams predicate their offense on drawing fouls - James Harden in the playoffs famously does not get the same calls as he does in the regular season, deflating his scoring averages.
As an example of a referee who tends to ref games that go over, let’s examine John Goble. Goble has seen nearly 70% of his games during the 2020 NBA season hit the over. The average points scored in games when Goble is the head official is around 230. Goble is a good example of a referee who can have an inflationary effect on scoring.
NBA Referees Home/Away Splits
There is no way around it, referees can be influenced by the home crowd in the NBA. They can try and be as unbiased as possible, some even try to be so unbiased that they help the away team, but it is almost impossible not to be influenced one way or another. This influence affects your bottom line at online sportsbooks for the NBA, so you need to know what the splits have been in the past to give you the best chance to predict the future.
Referees That Called The Most Fouls On The Road Team In The 2022-23 NBA Playoffs
- Eric Lewis: 61.1% Fouls Called Against The Road Team
- Sean Wright: 60.5% Fouls Called Against The Road Team
- Mark Lindsay: 57.9% Fouls Called Against The Road Team
- Sean Wright: 57.5% Fouls Called Against The Road Team
- Courtney Kirkland: 57.1% Fouls Called Against The Road Team
- Marc Davis: 56.5% Fouls Called Against The Road Team
- John Goble: 56.4% Fouls Called Against The Road Team
- Karl Lane: 56.2% Fouls Called Against The Road Team
- Mitchell Ervin: 55.1% Fouls Called Against The Road Team
- Ray Acosta: 54.8% Fouls Called Against The Road Team
Referees That Called The Most Fouls On The Home Team In The 2022-23 NBA Playoffs
- Eric Lewis: 52% Fouls Called Against The Home Team
- Bill Kennedy: 52.3% Fouls Called Against The Home Team
- David Guthrie: 52.4% Fouls Called Against The Home Team
- Pat Fraher: 52.4% Fouls Called Against The Home Team
- JB DeRosa: 52.7% Fouls Called Against The Home Team
- John Goble: 54.2% Fouls Called Against The Home Team
- Justin Van Duyne: 55.8% Fouls Called Against The Home Team
- Nick Buchert: 57.8% Fouls Called Against The Home Team
- Natalie Sago: 63.3% Fouls Called Against The Home Team
- Brian Forte: 64% Fouls Called Against The Home Team