For a professional sports league as large and far-reaching as the NFL, it’s shocking to see just how often poor refereeing decisions are in the spotlight. Bad officiating can have an impact on every area of the game; the players, the fans, even down to pay per head sportsbook websites who can see results defy their given odds thanks to a bad call.
The Ravens are, in particular, no stranger to being penalized, and whilst it’s impossible to say that the amount of infractions that they have amassed is purely due to issues with refereeing, it’s perhaps possible that there is some blame to be shared.
One example of many potentially game-changing refereeing performances would be the Ravens’ loss to the Patriots back in December. Whilst it was in no way a winning performance for the Ravens, the amount of penalty calls dished out by referee Ron Winter’s was nothing less than farcical. 16 penalties, a total of 141 penalty yards were called during the game, with Winter’s microphone cutting out intermittently causing even more frustration to those questioning his calls whilst watching at home.
However, Winter’s isn’t the only NFL refereeing dishing out potentially outcome-altering amounts of penalties. A report on refereeing published by ESPN found that Jeff Triplette and his crew called 244 penalties over the course of fifteen games. It’s a wonder to see just how high a number of penalties a refereeing team will see fit to dish out – perhaps putting a bet on the number of penalties at your favored pay per head bookie would make for an easier prediction than the outcome of the game after the input of the referee.
Triplette is no stranger to controversy regarding his calls – the fact that he was recently announced as the referee for the wild-card game between the San Diego Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals has been a rather confusing decision for many NFL fans and pundits. Is Triplette being congratulated by the NFL for his many penalty calls, since they claim to award postseason games to referees based on merit? Perhaps this style of over-refereeing is being specifically pushed by the league as the ‘right’ way to do things – a rather distressing possibility. Needless to say, discussion of Triplette’s work on Twitter is overwhelmingly negative.
It should perhaps be said that the referees do deserve a measure of understanding from fans – they are directly in the firing line a lot of the time, whether they make a good call or a bad one. However, that’s not to say that referees shouldn’t be held accountable when their decision-making seems misjudged. As mentioned previously, a bad call can have repercussions that go far beyond the match itself.
Sportsbook software sites that provide a pay per head service are one of many entities that can suffer the consequences should a refereeing call have a major impact on the flow and eventual outcome of a game. These types of service are tasked with managing betting lines for major websites, and as such a poor refereeing decision that significantly changes how the game plays out can play havoc with the precisely tuned odds that such sites supply.
Thankfully, Standardperhead.com’s sportsbook software is sufficiently advanced enough to avoid these sorts of issues, with live in-game wagering allowing players and customers alike to not fall foul of bad officiating when trying to put on a bet – one of the many reasons that they are a major player in price per head bookmaking.
It remains to be seen how the NFL will choose to manage the problems with refereeing that are currently plaguing the league – or indeed if they see current practices as problems as many fans and pundits do. With controversy abounding as the postseason unfolds it will be interesting to see if rising criticism of NFL officials prompts any sort of a official movement from the league itself.
