European Men's Handball Championship Preview & Betting Guide

2028 European Men's Handball Championship Preview

The 2028 European Men's Handball Championship will be jointly hosted by Portugal, Spain and Switzerland and will take place in January 2028. The first games will take place on the 13th of January 2028, and they will run through to the final on the 30th of January 2028.

There will be a total of six venues used for this tournament, four of which will be in Spain, with Madrid and Valencia hosting at two venues each. Lisbon (Portugal) and Zürich (Switzerland) will be the other venues used.

There will be a total of twenty-four countries competing. To start with, they will be split into six groups of four; the top two from Groups A, B, and C will make up Group I.

The top two countries from Groups D, E & F will advance to Group II, and points and goals will be carried over for results against other teams that advanced.

2028 European Men's Handball Championship Venues

• 83,186 - Madrid, Spain (Santiago Bernabéu Stadium)
• 20,000 - Lisbon, Portugal (MEO Arena)
• 15,600 - Valencia, Spain (Roig Arena)
• 15,000 - Madrid, Spain (Movistar Arena)
• 11,157 - Zürich, Switzerland (Swiss Life Arena)
• 9,000 - Valencia, Spain (Pavelló Municipal Font de Sant Lluís)

European Men's Handball Championship Past Winners

Denmark's success at the 2026 tournament ended a fourteen-year wait for a win, having last won it back in 2012; they had been beaten finalists twice in that time, including a year earlier when beaten in extra-time. 

The 2024 was only the third time that the final had gone to extra time and the first time in over twenty years, with the others coming in 2000 & 2002, both years Sweden won in extra-time.

European Men's Handball Championship Betting Tips

When it comes to the European Men's Handball Championship betting predictions, you have a choice: you can head over to our best handball tipsters page, where we only display tipsters who have shown a profit over the past twelve months for their handball predictions.

Alternatively, you can head to the handball predictions page, where each upcoming match will be listed here from all handball tournaments, with the most predicted outcome being highlighted. It also has links to match pages where you can view all of the markets and all of the tips.

If this is your first experience of handball betting or if you simply want to know more, then head over to the best bookie for handball betting article, where we will give you a helping hand by highlighting who is best to bet with and more.

Last Five Tournament Favourite Statistics

The success of the favourites does tend to jump around a bit from tournament to tournament. In 2018, we had 66% of successful favourites, going to the next tournament in 2020, and that jumps up to 77%, which is some difference. Two years later, though, and that is back down to 65% and then 62% before in 2026 when it jumped back up again to 72% this time!

The average of the last five tournaments stands at 68.40%, which is a bit lower than the women's equivalent of this tournament; their favourite win rate stands at 75.89% over the last five tournaments.

• 2018: 31-47 (65.96%)
• 2020: 50-65 (76.92%)
• 2022: 42-65 (64.62%)
• 2024: 40-65 (61.54%)
• 2026: 47-65 (72.31%)
• Overall: 210-307 (68.40%)

Last Five Tournament Goal Statistics

The average number of goals over the last five tournaments has been 57.17 with a total of 278 with 91% of the matches featuring over 47 goals, 86% with over 49.5 goals and 72% with over 52 goals, there have been 97 games with 60 or more goals which is the reason for the high average number, there have also been 56 games which have featured under 50 goals so it can swing either way but a 50 goal mark is a good starting point.

When comparing the total goals between the men's and women's tournaments, surprisingly, the difference is not as big as some would expect. Over the last five tournaments, there have been, on average, 57.17 goals per game, whilst for the women, that figure is 52.21.

• Over 50: 251 Games (81.76%)
• Over 52.5: 221 Games (71.99%)
• Over 55: 175 Games (57.00%)
• Over 57.5: 138 Games (44.95%)
• Over 60: 97 Games (31.60%)
• Over 62.5: 76 Games (24.76%)

European Men's Handball Championship Medal Table

With their two most recent medal wins, the Danes have now collected the joint-most medals at these tournaments with a total of nine, the same as the Spaniards. Their win in 2026 moved Denmark onto three golds and up to 3rd in the medal table. Ahead of them is France, which has won a total of four golds and leading the way is Sweden, the country that won four of the first five tournaments and then added a fifth in 2022.

More Handball Blogs

Men's Tournaments

• EHF Champions League
• European Men's Handball Championship
• IHF Men's Handball World Championship

Women's Tournaments

• Womens EHF Champions League
• European Women's Handball Championship
• IHF Women's Handball World Championship