A regulation handball match consists of two 30 minute halves separated by a 10 or 15 minute half time. The clock runs continuously unless a timeout is called or a player is injured. Additionally, at the end of the match, the referees will often call timeout after a foul to prevent excessive stalling by the team with the lead.

In terms of “real time” elapsed a typical handball match will last around 1 hour and 30 minutes.