90 million people world wide and 30,000 live attendees tuned into watch this epic battle. 

Riggs was a Wimbledon champion, ranked top 10 in the world from 1937-39, and champion of the U.S open 2 times. At the age of 55, he challenged 29 year old King to a match! This was a match with a winner take all $100,000 prize. However it appears that sports gamblers could be the real winners from this match… 

Billie Jean King was #1 in the world in women’s tennis and one of the greatest female tennis players of all time. She wanted to win not just for the money or attention, but to progress the woman’s liberation movement. Little did she know the movement would go way to far in just a few years.

King even stated “I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn’t win that match, It would ruin the women’s tour and affect the self esteem of all women.” 

Surprisingly to all, King “won” the sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. Or did she?

There is speculation that the match was only thrown by Riggs to cover his $100,000 gambling debt owed to the mob from lost gambling bets. ESPN investigation findings state that Riggs himself proposed the idea to purposefully loose the match. 

He was the odds favorite so in betting against him the mob could earn back their debts.  

Billie Jean replied by saying, “I won this fair and square,” and she was apparently unaware of any mob connections. 

Billie Jean King is now an advocate for gender equality and has an autobiography titled, “All in.” She’s married to a woman and received a “Presidential Medal of Freedom,” for her LGBTQ advocate work. 

She continues to fight for “women’s Equal Rights in Sports,” despite it being based off a rigged match.

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