We have seen monster valuations for teams in sailing and equestrian, so is the World Fencing League next in line?

One of the reasons football became the world's only truly global sport is its low barrier to entry: two objects as goalposts – they do not even need to be of any great vertical stature – and something to kick around, and you have the foundations of a game.

The same goes for boxing; people have been punching each other for pain and pleasure for millennia – only now the legitimate version involves, mostly, gloves and stadiums packed to the rafters.

And like pugilism, other combat sports such as sword fighting have been part of the human psyche for centuries. Fencing, notably, is one of only a handful of sports to have been contested at every modern Olympic Games since 1896, giving it a competitive pedigree that few niche sports can match. That is why the world's most followed fencer – and Lewis Hamilton's best mate – Miles Chamley-Watson, backed by boutique sports investment firm Chiron Sports Group, created the World Fencing League.

"Boxing is in our DNA," the London-born fencer tells City AM. "Fencing is still a purely combat sport.

"You see what Drive to Survive did for F1 in America. I know my best friend is a racer, but what Drive to Survive did for F1, [it] opened eyes in America and around the sides of Europe.

"Then you have this whole audience saying he's not just driving in circles. And then fencing. Break it down and we have a stick in our hand and you realise, 'I'm an actual sword fighter'. This is in our DNA."

In our DNA

The World Fencing League sees mixed-gender teams competing across the Olympic disciplines of sabre, foil and epee for a purse of $100,000 at each event.

It debuted in Los Angeles in April and has plans to expand beyond the United States. With Chiron Sports Group – which holds a stake in Italian football club Venezia, as well as in the Team Drogba E1 speedboat team alongside a US college investment platform – involved, it is the latest niche sport looking to emulate the likes of sailing, triathlon and showjumping. The template being followed is a familiar one: franchise-based leagues in sports such as cricket, sailing and netball have attracted private capital in recent years by packaging traditionally club- or nation-based competition into city teams, closed circuits and broadcast-friendly formats.

World Fencing League chief Zhen Ren Teo says the sport should not be seen as emerging, but certainly should be described as niche.

Niche?

"The option right there is to build the ecosystem itself," he adds. "It's everything from the league to the media to the product itself to franchises to the technology that we're introducing, all the way to commercial rights."

The league owns the IP to broadcast technology by Dentsu Labs which tracks the top of the blade, allowing fans at home to get a better look at how winning moves are pulled off. Demonstrations of the technology in action went viral. It is a bet that echoes the wider trend across sport, where innovations such as ball-tracking in cricket and tennis, and on-screen race telemetry in F1, have repeatedly made technically complex competition easier for casual viewers to follow.

"We don't have to manufacture the interest from zero," the Singapore-born executive adds, "because fencing, like other niche sports, already has a very global participation base. There's a strong Olympic relevance.

"We want major events and a circuit that goes through on an annual basis, eventually also launching city-based franchises where the world's best athletes would be competing."

It is not known when the next dates will be announced. What to watch for next is whether the league confirms further event dates and names the investors or franchise cities that would signal whether its ecosystem-building ambition is translating into commercial traction.

Two decades ago, the idea of turning a niche sport such as fencing into a commercially recognised powerhouse would have been for the birds, but foundations laid by a number of other sports – and access to previously untapped digital and technological worlds – mean the bladed combat sport could be on a path to a whole new world. Allez.