What Sports Have Full Time Referees?

Professional referees are sometimes handsomely rewarded for their work. The reason for this high pay is because of the demands of the job; some referees have to work full-time due to the schedule of the sport that they officiate. The NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball are examples of sports that use full time referees, while the NFL is an example of a sport that does not have full time referees.

  1. National Basketball Association

    • The National Basketball Association starts at the end of October, and its playoffs go through June. With 30 teams playing an 82-game schedule, games take place every day. Each NBA game has three referees, and their primary job is to enforce the rules of the game, including noting when the ball goes out of bound, when a player commits a foul and regulating tip-offs. According to therichest.org, the average salary for an NBA referee in 2007 was between $100,000 and $300,000 a year, as of February, 2011.

    National Hockey League

    • The National Hockey League has a similar schedule structure to that of the NBA. In addition to normal referees (whose job it is to call penalties, which can result in players being temporarily suspended in the game), linesmen are on hand, whose specific job is to watch the various lines (including the center line) and ensure players follow regulations. According to therichest.org, a referee made between $110,000 and $255,000, and a linesman made between $72,000 and $162,000.

    Major League Baseball

    • In Major League Baseball, the individuals whose job it is to keep track of the rules are called "umpires," not referees, and four umpires officiate each game -- one at each base and a home plate umpire who calls balls and strikes. Thirty 30 MLB teams play 162 games a year between April and October. According to the official MLB website, umpires at the time of this publication make anywhere from $84,000 to $300,000 a year.

    Sports Without Full-Time Referees

    • While all sports need referees, the position is not necessarily full time. A prime example of this is the National Football League, in which games -- that require seven officials --take place only once a week. Boxing is another sport that does not use full time referees; a professional boxing match has one referee per match, but the matches don't take place every day.