Bookings & Cards Predictions

The bookings (cards) market covers yellow and red cards shown during a match. The simplest form is Over/Under on total booking points — typically with yellow cards counting as 10 points and red cards counting as 25 — with common lines at Over/Under 30 or 35 booking points. You can also bet on which player will receive the first yellow card, or whether a specific team will receive a card. Cards are influenced by match intensity, the referee's historical tendency, the stakes of the game, and any rivalry between clubs. Local derbies and relegation six-pointers typically see significantly more cards than mid-season mid-table fixtures. Referees with a historically liberal approach (averaging 4+ cards per game) inflate the market relative to a tight-fisted official who averages 2–3. The card market requires integration of referee data — something Sportdico's current pipeline does not yet include. Our match stats schema already collects card counts per game. Adding referee identity to fixtures, cross-referencing their booking averages, and combining this with rivalry and stakes signals will enable robust cards predictions. This is planned for a future pipeline sprint.