iGaming Ontario (iGO) is looking for a President and Chief Executive Officer. Not only is the current CEO, Martha Otton, retiring at the end of the year, but the position is expanding to include the title of President now that the iGO is going to be a fully independent board-governed agency, separate from its parent company, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).
That’s right: this is big news for the Ontario iGaming market.
A relationship dissolved
On October 30, 2024, the Government of Ontario proposed the iGaming Ontario Act, 2024, as part of Bill 216, the Building Ontario For You Act, 2024, which was passed and received Royal Assent on November 6, 2024. The iGaming Ontario Act stipulates that the subsidiary relationship between the AGCO and iGO, as per the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario Act, 2019, would be revoked.
“Once proclaimed [in early 2025], the Act would… dissolve the parent-subsidiary relationship between the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and iGO,” a spokesperson from the office of Doug Downey, the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, explained.
A conflict-of-interest addressed
Since its establishment in 2021, iGO has been a subsidiary of AGCO, but the relationship is now officially ending.
“This change would strengthen iGO’s governance and accountability structure and contribute to the continued success of Ontario’s thriving iGaming market by positioning the agency as a competitive employer and addressing a conflict-of-interest concern raised by the Auditor General,” the spokesperson continued.
The conflict-of-interest concern stems from the AGCO’s relationship with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG). Prior to the inception of the iGO and the resulting fully-regulated gaming market in Ontario, the OLG was the only legally-approved gaming provider in Ontario. The company was and still is regulated by the AGCO. When iGO was created as a subsidiary of AGCO, though, it meant that all of the OLG’s competitors were managed by iGO when the OLG wasn’t. The OLG, effectively, had special treatment.
The iGaming Ontario Act works to address the Auditor General’s concern by removing this conflict-of-interest. Both the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario Act, 2019 and the Gaming Control Act, 1992 will be amended, eliminating all mention of a lottery subsidiary. The OLG will find itself under the same circumstances as its competitors with the AGCO and iGO severing ties.
No longer a subsidiary
Now, iGO’s board of directors is looking for the standalone corporation’s first President and Chief Executive Officer. Not merely to replace Otton, but to take the agency into the future, not as a little sister to the AGCO—no longer as its subsidiary—but as an independently board-governed entity.
As a result, Ontario’s iGaming market will see improved accountability and a streamlined operation from the market’s regulators. It’s big news, and it’s good news.