the teams handicap is added to their final score, essentially

so if team A has a 3pt handicap on team B, and then team B beats team A 5-3, the handicap effectively changes the score to 5-6 on saloon, meaning those who bet on team A wins the beta (even though team B still wins the match

this is so bets with an obvious large discrepancy between the teams' skill levels dont always end up with 99% of bets on the better team

For etf2l matches there's a total of 6 points spread between two teams (two maps are played during each match). 3 points for a map win, 2 points for golden cap win, 1 for golden cap loss. For example if one team has a handicap of 5, they just need to tie one map to win on saloon.

Oh I get it now. The explanation from the "help" section was a bit hard to digest.

Handicap of 5 they just need to get into a golden cap to win.

https://saloon.tf/match/115

Reason won 5-1 but publiclr won the saloon because publiclr had 5 point handicap

Its pretty logical: there are 6 points total you can get
For 5 point handicap:
If you win a golden cap and win other map you get 5 points and the other team gets 1 point + 5 for handicap = 6
For 3 points handicap:
If you lose golden cap and win other map you get 4 points and the other team gets 2 points + 3 for handicap = 5
For 1 point handicap:
If you tie maps you get 3 points and the other team gets 3 points + 1 for handicap = 4

Or if you win a GC (2pts) and loose one (1pt) = 3 points+1 handicap = 4

Having a tie on one map in regular time means getting into a golden cap.

We used to have a text explaining handicaps for EU, but that hasn't been implemented after the transition. I've nudged the owners of the site and hopefully they get to it soon.

I'll keep in mind to explain the handicap in the comment section on the match page for the time being.