A referee is a sports official who’s tasked with overseeing and controlling a sports game. The specific job duties of a referee include looking out for fouls and other disallowed moves, and penalize players who’ve broken the rules accordingly. Additionally, in some cases the referee may be responsible for keeping track of the score by registering goals (or whatever type of scoring system the game uses). Referees may work alone or in teams – examples of single-referee games include most fighting sports, while games with teams of referees include football, basketball and other games with a large number of players.
Becoming a referee doesn’t require a higher education than a high school degree, though it does require a lot of personal characteristics. A good referee must have excellent vision and perception in order to be able to get a good overview of the game as it progresses; additionally, referees must usually have some experience in the sport they’re overseeing, and must be physically fit to some extent in order to maintain a good level of performance.
Referees in professional leagues earn very well, with salaries of between $75,000 – $105,000 per year being the most common – while those working in amateur leagues typically realize an average annual salary of $34,000 – $56,000. The job also earns some good healthcare bonuses and other benefits, and has moderately good employment opportunities for those who’ve built up some experience. Additionally, the market saturation isn’t high, allowing for newcomers to easily enter it.