iGaming Ontario Announces Appointment of New President and CEO
Posted on: August 28, 2025, 09:59h.
Last updated on: August 28, 2025, 10:28h.
- Joseph Hillier brings a blend of public and private sector experience
- Hillier was the former chief strategy officer of AGCO
- Industry observers see further growth of Ontario’s iGaming market
The board at iGaming Ontario (iGO) has finally announced the appointment of a new President and CEO, someone they said brings the right mix of private and public sector experience at a critical time in the growth of the market in Ontario.
Joseph Hillier was named to the position, effective Sept. 8, 2025, in a statement released by iGaming Ontario on Thursday morning.
Hillier was most recently Chief Strategy Officer and Corporate Secretary at the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), the provincial iGaming regulator.
iGaming Ontario reports to the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming, and works in tandem with AGCO, conducting and managing the regulated iGaming market in the province.
Public and Private Sector Experience
iGaming Ontario said in a statement that Hillier, while at AGCO, “delivered significant strategic and regulatory initiatives across the province’s alcohol, cannabis, gaming and horse racing sectors.”
Prior to his work at AGCO, Hillier was chief of staff to Attorney General Doug Downey, and led the development, launch, and implementation of Ontario’s private sector-driven iGaming market, which launched in April 2022, that included the creation of iGaming Ontario.
Hillier also spent a decade working in the financial and legal services sectors.
“The Board of Directors looks forward to supporting Joseph as he leads iGaming Ontario to build on Ontario’s igaming market success and deliver on key priorities, including an anti-money laundering system for operators, and a centralized self-exclusion platform for Ontarians,” the statement said.
Self-Exclusion Program
Hillier replaces Martha Otton, who retired from the position of executive director in August 2024. iGaming Ontario announced a leadership search in November 2024, then announced in December that Otton had agreed to stay on in her position until March 31, 2025.
As a senior industry source told Casino.org that iGaming Ontario has learned many lessons in its 3.5 years of existence, but the organization hasn’t “been able to apply those” as of yet.
“There is no automation. All AML reporting – manual. There is no centralized self-exclusion system. They’ve awarded the contract [to Integrity Compliance 360 and IXUP], but this is the kind of stuff that should have been done in the first year. I realize [iGO] had a lot of bogeys to shoot down at the time, but we’re closing in on Year 4 soon. None of those decisions have been getting made,” the industry source told Casino.org.
50 Licensed Operators Currently in Ontario
David Smith had been serving as Interim President and CEO since Otton’s retirement, and as the source said, Smith, understandably, didn’t want to make decisions that would bind the new president and CEO.
That was the right move,” the source said. “But we have an asset that earns the Ontario government half a billion dollars a year and no one was leading it.”
The Ontario iGaming market currently has 50 licensed operators doing business in the regulated market.
iGO isn’t a gaming company, but is instead a public and private partnership that serves as a contract management entity.
Need for AML Automation
“The leadership of iGO needs to recognize that the 50 operators are the business, and they need to be embracing policies that make it easier for their business partners to go out and earn money,” Casino.org’s source said. “That means looking at ways to introduce automation, reduce the overall costs so that the registered operators can compete with the illegal unregulated sector.”
The source added that he expects to see other entrants join the legal iGaming market in Ontario.
“I think other operators will look at coming into Ontario as a means of expansion across the rest of the country as places like Alberta and other jurisdictions create regulatory regimes,” he said. “Ontario is still a very good place to do business. It’s a reasonable regulatory environment. The regulator here is excellent.
iGO Reports Market Growth in July
“We have to be careful about adding too many costs to the operator side, because we will start to see a market correction. The online gaming marketplace continues to experience growth … operators that have a niche market that they’re going after.”
On Wednesday, iGaming Ontario released financial results for the regulated igaming market in July, showing a 4% month-over-month increase in total wagers (CA$7.56 billion in July).
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