iGaming Ontario announced on Thursday that its executive director Martha Otton will retire on December 31, 2024.

Otton has led iGO, the agency that conducts and manages Ontario iGaming, since early 2021. In that time, she oversaw the lead-up to, launch of and early success of Ontario’s regulated commercial online gaming and betting market.

iGO said that during her three-and-a-half years in the position, “she has built a value-driven agency guided by the vision to lead the world’s best gaming market.”

Otton was previously chief strategy officer at the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). In that role, she was responsible for the agency’s strategic plan and played a key role in the implementation of the AGCO’s expanded mandate over horse racing and cannabis.

Prior to joining the AGCO, Martha was a director general at Legal Aid Ontario and held a series of positions at the Ministry of the Attorney General.

“On behalf of the entire board, I extend my sincere appreciation for Martha’s leadership of iGaming Ontario,” said Heidi Reinhart, chair of iGO’s board of directors. “She has left an impressive legacy across her career, and in particular to Ontario’s gaming sector. Ontario’s competitive iGaming market is testament to her visionary leadership and commitment to working with our operators and broader stakeholders.”

The iGO board will now begin a process to identify Otton’s successor as the agency’s leader.

Otton helped forge booming market

Under iGO’s oversight, Ontario’s online gambling market has quickly become a multi-billion-dollar industry, with more than 50 operators and roughly 70 different websites securing licenses to operate under regulation. In its second full year from May 2023 to April 2024, the market generated $2.4 billion in revenue from $63 billion in wagers, year-over-year jumps of 71.4% and 78%, respectively.

Data published by iGO and Deloitte suggested that the market is performing far better than had been projected and is already approaching some year-five targets. It is also credited with supporting 15,000 jobs and generating more than $4 billion in economic value for the province.

Otton said at the Canadian Gaming Summit in June that while the gross gaming revenue growth is impressive, “the bigger and better story is what gaming is doing for the broader economy” in Ontario.

Under Otton’s leadership, the iGO also recently selected a joint bid by Integrity Compliance 360 and IXUP to develop a new first-of-its-kind centralized self-exclusion system for Ontario’s gaming market to help protect vulnerable players.

In a statement, the Canadian Gaming Association hailed Otton for her “hard and tenacious work in launching Canada’s first regulated gaming jurisdiction and for helping to grow it into one of the world’s most successful markets.

“Her retirement is well-earned and she has our appreciation for her leadership and vision in shaping the future of iGaming,” added the CGA.