Louis Devaleix is a French-born polo patron and player who starred on Netflix’s Polo (December 2024). He picked up the sport in 2020 with zero riding experience, went on to win the East Coast Open twice, and built La Fe polo team into one of America’s most recognized clubs. He holds a 0 handicap.

Some people discover a passion late in life and dabble. Then there is Louis Devaleix, who picked up a polo mallet for the first time in 2020, had never sat on a horse before that day, and within a year was lifting a championship trophy alongside one of the sport’s greatest players. His story, which landed in front of millions of viewers when Netflix’s Polo premiered in December 2024, is not a fairy tale. It is a portrait of obsession, money, effort, and the rare alchemy that happens when all three collide.

Devaleix is a French-born entrepreneur raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who eventually made his home in the United States. Until about two and a half years before his breakthrough, he had never played polo in his life and had never even ridden a horse. Before polo consumed him, golf was his sport of choice. It carried him all the way through college in America. Then, in 2020, at a club in Loxahatchee, Florida, a single polo lesson changed everything.

This article covers who Louis Devaleix is, how he built La Fe into a respected polo team, what his appearance on Netflix’s Polo revealed about the sport’s culture, and what his journey tells us about the world of high-goal polo.

Who Is Louis Devaleix?

Louis was born in France and moved to Brazil as a baby, growing up in Rio de Janeiro where he had access to a golf and polo club. Golf, not polo, was where he spent his competitive energy. He played at a high enough level to earn a college scholarship in the United States, building a life split between sport and business.

Born in France but growing up in Rio de Janeiro before coming to the United States, Devaleix’s newfound passion for polo launched the adrenaline junkie from the golf course to the polo field seemingly overnight. He briefly appeared at the start of the Netflix series at what looked like a med-tech firm, but for his public identity, polo is now the defining story.

His First Day on a Horse

It was his first time riding a horse. He took his first polo lesson with Carlos Gonzalez and as soon as he hit the ball one meter, he fell immediately in love with the sport. “It was beautiful and inspiring, it’s you with another animal,” Devaleix said. That description is worth holding onto. For someone who had spent decades on a golf course, the partnership between rider and horse was something entirely new, and it hooked him completely.

His Handicap and Playing Style

In polo, handicap ratings run from -1 to 10. The best Argentine professionals in the world sit at 10. The Argentinian players are 10s. Louis is a 0. Prince Harry is a 1. That context matters. Devaleix is not a professional polo player in the traditional sense. He is a patron, meaning he funds the team and plays alongside hired professionals. Usually seen in the Number 4 defensive position, Devaleix has contributed goals for La Fe in 18-goal competition.

Building La Fe: The Team Behind the Name

La Fe is not just a polo team. It is a personal project that reflects Devaleix’s values and the relationships he has built inside the sport.

La Fe is a family farm that Robi Bilbao has in Argentina. Robi is one of the reasons Devaleix gets to play polo. He has sacrificed a lot to play here, as he could make more money working for other teams. He is a loyal and transparent individual who provides all the horses and has made polo affordable for Devaleix, which is why he decided to name the team after his farm.

That is a rare admission in a world where team names often carry sponsor logos or family surnames. Naming the team after a farmhand’s property in Argentina is a statement about loyalty over branding.

The East Coast Open Wins

Louis experienced success from the beginning, winning the 2021 East Coast Open at Greenwich with Hilario Ulloa, one of the best players in the world. “To play with Hilario Ulloa, one of the best players in the world, when you’re just starting out and winning the East Coast Open is an accomplishment that still hasn’t sunk in,” Devaleix said.

He raised the East Coast Open trophy again in 2022, making La Fe one of the more accomplished teams in American high-goal polo within its first two years of existence.

Horse Breeding as a Second Passion

Beyond playing, Devaleix started breeding horses alongside Robi Bilbao. He reads about different horses, the strings, and watches videos. Besides playing, it has become his other passion. For a man who had never ridden a horse before 2020, moving into breeding within two years shows the depth of his commitment.

Netflix’s Polo: What the Show Revealed

The five-episode docuseries Polo premiered on Netflix in December 2024. It was produced by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and offered an inside look at high-goal polo in America.

The fellow most often featured is Louis Devaleix, who is briefly shown at some kind of med-tech firm at the start of the series but mostly seems to have devoted himself full-time to polo.

The show did not turn Devaleix into a polo hero. Critics noted that his team was eliminated early. But the series gave viewers something more interesting: a portrait of what drives someone to pour this level of time, money, and emotional energy into a sport they discovered in middle age.

His team gets knocked out early, he has a good cry, and he later takes his team to Argentina so he and the fellas can keep practicing. His wife Pamela quite honestly says the most honest thing in the entire series: “It’s a hobby.”

That moment resonated with viewers because it named the tension at the heart of the show. Devaleix plays with the same professionals as royalty and billionaires, but he is not winning at their level. Yet his commitment is genuine.

Louis Devaleix and Pamela Flanagan: A Polo Love Story

While playing his first series of tournaments at IPC for La Fe, Devaleix met Pamela Flanagan. An experienced polo player, Pamela was also in Wellington as part of the Hawaii Polo Life team that year, which won the Women’s U.S. Open Polo Championship. Their shared love for polo and horses helped them connect immediately.

Three months after meeting, they were engaged. Getting engaged in three months was not really aligned with Pamela’s personality, or something anyone in her family would have expected. “I didn’t think I would do that,” she recalled.

The relationship moved fast. Pamela and Louis met in January 2022, got engaged in June 2022, married in June 2023, and welcomed their daughter, Alina Kelley, in July 2024. Pamela is also the sister of Bachelor alum Kelley Flanagan and a practicing attorney who founded the Rescue Polo Project, an organization that saves horses from slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada.

Devaleix also has a son, Ames, from a previous relationship, who is La Fe’s first supporter and even took his place on the podium during the team’s triumph at Greenwich.

Louis Devaleix at a Glance

What His Story Tells Us About Modern Polo

High-goal polo in America sits at a crossroads between inherited wealth and genuine athletic culture. Surrounding himself with elite athletes, including 10-goaler Hilario Ulloa and fellow golfer Michael Jordan, Devaleix, at 41, has already achieved significant milestones in his budding polo career.

His story highlights something real about the patron system: the sport survives because wealthy individuals like Devaleix fund teams that employ world-class Argentine professionals. Without patrons, high-goal tournaments would not exist at their current scale. The arrangement is practical, if complicated.

As recently as 2025 and heading into 2026, Devaleix continued competing, supporting the Ulloa family organization through La Hache and discussing plans for the 2026 polo season with PoloLine. The learning has not stopped.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Louis Devaleix? Louis Devaleix is a French-born polo patron and player, founder of La Fe polo team, and one of the featured subjects in Netflix’s Polo documentary series, which premiered in December 2024.

When did Louis Devaleix start playing polo? He took his first polo lesson in 2020 at the Sunset Polo Club in Loxahatchee, Florida. He had no prior riding experience before that day.

What is Louis Devaleix’s polo handicap? His official handicap is 0, which means he is a developing player. Professional Argentine polo players typically hold ratings of 8 to 10.

Who is Pamela Flanagan Devaleix? She is Louis’s wife, a polo player, attorney, horse rescue advocate, and the sister of Bachelor alum Kelley Flanagan. They married in June 2023.

What is La Fe polo team? La Fe is the team that Devaleix founded and patronizes. The name comes from a farm in Argentina owned by Robi Bilbao, a key figure in Devaleix’s polo career.

Louis Devaleix arrived at polo without a riding background, without a polo lineage, and at an age when most athletes are thinking about slowing down. Within four years, he had won major titles, built a respected team, started a horse breeding operation, married a polo player and attorney, started a family, and ended up on a Netflix series produced by royals. That trajectory does not happen by accident, and it does not happen without the financial means to sustain it, but the commitment at its core is real.

The bigger question his story raises is this: what does it mean to succeed in a sport when the competitive gap between you and the best in the world is measured in tens of thousands of hours? Devaleix’s answer, shown clearly across the Netflix series, is that the standard for success belongs to you. He kept going to Argentina, kept training, kept improving, and kept building La Fe into something worth watching. Whether you call that a hobby or a calling probably says more about you than it does about him.