Gigadat Review
5.8/10The Interac e-Transfer specialist behind Canadian gaming cashiers since 2013: FINTRAC-registered through 2028, FastPlay as Canada's Pay'n'Play, no price published anywhere, and a Bank of Canada RPAA application In Review since November 2024.
Our read
Total reach inside one market, since every Canadian bank answers the Interac rail. One rail, one currency, one country is also the entire map.
The FINTRAC MSB runs through 2028. The RPAA application, still In Review after twenty months, takes the rest.
Real-time exists inside FastPlay, while the standard flow runs Monday to Friday with next-day notifications and no merchant T+n terms published anywhere.
Thirteen years, a zero-violations flag at the Bank of Canada, and no incidents, set against zero named clients and zero awards since 2020.
One API, a hosted banking redirect, FastPlay as a single integration, and Corefy and Rebilly connectors on their side, with no public docs or sandbox on Gigadat's.
Nothing is published: no pricing, no volume, no merchant counts, no client names, no SLA.
Methodology. Our own score, a weighted average of six dimensions, tilted toward licensing and coverage. Scored on the US-regulated weights, where licensing and compliance carry 0.26 and coverage 0.20, which is exactly where Gigadat splits in half: a current FINTRAC registration and default-rail reach inside Canada hold the floor at 5.8, while the unresolved RPAA application, a standard payout flow that runs Monday to Friday, and fully gated commercials keep the ceiling low. Read the full methodology
- The Interac e-Transfer incumbent for Canadian gaming, in the vertical since 2013, with the October 2017 Easy Payment Gateway distribution deal as third-party proof of tenure.
- FINTRAC MSB registration M23430346 covers money transferring, virtual currency dealing, and PSP services, current through 2028-02-28.
- Effectively every Canadian bank reachable through one rail, and push-payment deposits carry no chargeback mechanism at all.
- FastPlay packs registration, bank-sourced KYC, the deposit, and a real-time withdrawal into one integration, the closest thing Canada has to Pay'n'Play, with a 40% FTD conversion lift behind it.
- Payout rails go past e-Transfer, with eCashout ACH direct deposit to any Canadian bank account plus a bank wire option.
- Operational transparency rare in the niche: a public e-Transfer status portal, a law-enforcement query channel, a bilingual 24/7 consumer desk, and a pledge to the CGA advertising code effective January 2026.
- The RPAA registration is still pending: the application filed 2024-11-01 stood In Review in July 2026, twenty months on, while rivals Loonio (registered 2025-10-07) and Paybilt (2025-10-16) already cleared the same process.
- Standard withdrawals process Monday to Friday only, never on weekends or bank holidays, with acceptance notices arriving the next day (Jul 2026), so real-time payouts are a FastPlay capability rather than the default player experience.
- Total commercial darkness: no pricing, no processed-volume or merchant counts, no named clients, no public API docs, no sandbox, and no published SLA anywhere primary.
- The legacy manual flow is a support generator: a mistyped unique ID, a wrong amount, or failed security answers bounces the deposit after a 24-hour window, friction that reaches the operator's support desk, and the awards shelf has been empty since 2020.
- One country, and only its non-Crown slice: Ontario is the sole regulated private market served, Alberta is a stated hope for 2026, and the US has never been on the map.
Operators entering or scaling Canada, Ontario today and Alberta if 2026 goes to plan, who want the market's default Interac deposit and payout rail from its longest-standing gaming specialist, plus European brands routing Canadian traffic through the Easy Payment Gateway channel that has carried Interac2Pay since 2017.
US-facing operators, since nothing ships in the US, Crown-corporation programs, which Gigadat explicitly does not serve, crypto-first cashiers, and any buyer who needs published pricing, public docs, or a contractual SLA before talking to sales.
Markets & licensing
Gigadat's license sheet is one line long, and that line is solid: FINTRAC MSB M23430346 covering money transferring, virtual currency dealing, and PSP services, current through 2028-02-28. The second line is pending: Gigadat applied to the Bank of Canada under the Retail Payment Activities Act on 2024-11-01, and the application stands In Review (July 2026). In Review is no sanction, since transition-window applicants may operate while processing runs, and the registration itself is the item to watch in diligence.
Gigadat has no US entity, no product, no licensing, and no expansion signal. Within this directory's North American regulated-payments segment it is the Canada entry, and Canada is where it stays: the COO's public remarks about growth all point at Alberta, never south. US-first operators should read PayNearMe, Aeropay, or Sightline Payments instead.
No UK permissions, product, or plans exist. The only European angle points the other way: Easy Payment Gateway has distributed Gigadat's Interac2Pay to European operators since October 2017, so a UK-licensed brand can reach its Canadian players through that channel while its actual UK cashier runs on someone else entirely.
- Canada (FINTRAC) MSB M23430346Canada
- Money transferring, virtual currency dealing, and payment service provider services · Gigadat Inc., operating name Gigadat Solutions · approved 2023-03-30 · current through 2028-02-28
- Canada (Bank of Canada) RPAA registrationCanada
- Retail payment activities registration for payment service providers · Application In Review since 2024-11-01 (Jul 2026) · zero violations flagged
- Interac trademark licenseCanada
- Rides Interac e-Transfer rails through Canadian banking partners under a trademark license · Trademark license · no Interac Corp membership
Licensing tier: Thinness is normal in this lane, since pure payment processing needs no AGCO supplier registration and no gambling license anywhere in Canada. The open item is the RPAA application, In Review at the Bank of Canada since November 2024 under the transition window.
Regulated means Ontario only. Gigadat works with no Crown corporations by its own statement, which rules out the other provinces' lottery-corp programs, and Alberta's private market is the stated 2026 target.
Absent, and absent by design. Nothing ships outside Canada in either direction, so US and UK simply sit off the map.
Methods & rails
What you can reach
A2A rails
Flagship local methods
Payout rails
Processing features
Integrations & engineering
One contract and one API instead of a separate deal per studio, feed, or PSP. Here's what connects, how fast, and on what stack.
One API against a hosted flow: the player is handed into a new window, picks their bank, and completes the transfer inside their own online banking, with Gigadat as the recipient and a provided security answer. FastPlay runs the same rail as a combined registration-and-deposit pass, and the vendor pitches combined flow solutions that fold pay-ins and payouts into one integration. Nothing developer-facing is public, no docs and no sandbox, so scoping happens inside the Business Development track. Merchant-side tooling is real: pre-withdrawal user validation, Autodeposit registration checks, province-level bank selection parameters, a QR handoff from desktop to mobile, email payment links for in-app browsers, and API refunds from the back office (Feb 2026).
Not published. Scoping happens inside the Business Development track.
Products & tools
One rail, four wrappers: Interac e-Transfer pay-ins with Request Money on top, a payout set that adds eCashout ACH and a bank wire, FastPlay compressing registration, bank-sourced KYC, and the first deposit into a single flow, and Gigadat Secure reusing that same bank identity as verification.
Interac e-Transfer Pay-ins
Deposits over the one rail every Canadian bank answers: standard Interac e-Transfer plus the Request Money pull flow, with push-payment construction that leaves no chargeback mechanism on deposits and a legacy manual flow whose failure modes are documented in the vendor's own FAQ.
- Interac e-Transfer deposits, supported by 100% of Canadian financial institutions (Jul 2026)
- Request Money flow, which Gigadat calls Interac's newest money transfer product
- Deposits land almost instantly but can take up to 30 minutes (Jul 2026)
- No chargeback mechanism exists on deposits, a structural property of the push rail
- Manual flow still requires a unique ID in the transfer message field inside a 24-hour window
- Interac2Pay, the legacy bank-push product, distributed to European operators through Easy Payment Gateway since October 2017
Payouts & eCashout
Three ways out: Interac e-Transfer payouts that need only the player's email or phone, eCashout as a customized ACH deposit straight to any Canadian bank account, and a bank wire option. Real-time belongs to FastPlay, while the standard flow runs Monday to Friday.
- e-Transfer payouts keyed to the player's email or phone, with no bank details collected
- eCashout, a customized ACH product depositing to any Canadian bank account
- A bank wire option billed as exclusive
- Real-time and overnight processing inside the FastPlay flow (Jul 2026)
- Standard withdrawals process Monday to Friday only, never on weekends or bank holidays (Jul 2026)
- Acceptance notification for a standard e-Transfer withdrawal arrives the next day
FastPlay
Registration and the first deposit in one pass from the player's banking environment, with identity sourced from the bank and a real-time withdrawal inside the same flow. This is the Pay'n'Play pattern translated to Interac, sold as one integration.
- Deposit and registration happen in the same Interac flow
- Identity comes from the player's bank, sold as the full KYC life cycle
- Real-time withdrawal runs inside the same flow
- One integration covers the whole loop
- Published lifts: deposit volume up to 100% per player, average transaction value up to 30%, registration conversion up 40% for FTDs (Jul 2026)
Gigadat Secure
Bank-based identity verification layered onto the payment flow, positioned against Canada's PCMLTFA obligations, with the vendor describing itself as proactively compliant and engaged with FINTRAC.
- Identity verification sourced from the player's bank relationship
- KYC, AML, and CFT screening positioned against PCMLTFA obligations
- Vendor self-description: proactively compliant and engaged with financial regulators such as FINTRAC
- Pairs with the merchant API set: pre-withdrawal user validation and Autodeposit registration checks
The history
Sales decks get rewritten for every deal. A dated record doesn't.
Gigadat has run as a business since 2013, founded in Winnipeg by Guy Fietz and pointed at Canadian online gaming payments from early on. The paper trail firms up in stages: the October 2017 Interac2Pay distribution deal with Easy Payment Gateway put it in front of European operators, a federal reincorporation created Gigadat Inc. (corporation 1122364-0) on January 30, 2019, FINTRAC approved MSB registration M23430346 on March 30, 2023, and the RPAA application reached the Bank of Canada on November 1, 2024, where it stands In Review (July 2026). Registered office is Winnipeg, operations run from Calgary, and the company has stayed private and founder-led throughout.
Corporate
Leadership
Milestones
- 2013
Guy Fietz founds the business in Winnipeg and points it at payments for Canadian online gaming.
- 2017
Easy Payment Gateway becomes the official Interac2Pay distributor in October, putting Gigadat's bank-push product in front of European operators with Canadian traffic.
- 2019
Federal reincorporation on January 30 creates Gigadat Inc., corporation 1122364-0.
- 2023
FINTRAC approves MSB registration M23430346 on March 30, covering money transferring, virtual currency dealing, and PSP services.
- 2024
The RPAA application lands at the Bank of Canada on November 1, inside the transition window that lets applicants keep operating while under review.
- 2025
Challengers Loonio and Paybilt clear Bank of Canada RPAA registration in October, while Gigadat's application stays In Review.
- 2026
Exhibits at ICE Barcelona, pledges support for the CGA Code for Responsible Gaming Advertising effective January, states Alberta readiness, and announces a Health Bank Page for live rail visibility.
Where they're pushing next
- Alberta, where the private market develops through 2026 and Gigadat states readiness
- European operators with Canadian traffic, reached through the Easy Payment Gateway channel
Longevity and ownership
Switching vendors is expensive, which makes the company's staying power part of the purchase. What the contract says about your data decides how expensive an exit gets.
Gigadat vs alternatives
No two vendors describe themselves the same way, which makes their own claims hard to line up. Every name here answers the same fields, so you can see where this one sits against the closest alternatives.
| Attribute | Gigadat | PayNearMe | Aeropay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2013 | 2009 | 2017 |
| Team | 50+ | 230+ | 60+ |
| US market | Restricted | Available | Available |
| Pricing | Not published | Not published | On request |
| Methods | — | 9+ | 1+ |
| Currencies | 1+ | 1+ | 1+ |
| Coins | 0+ | — | — |
| EMI / PI licenses | Canada | — | — |
| Settlement | Not published | Not published as a merchant SLA | Same-day ACH batches to the merchant by default (Jul 2026) |
| Instant payouts | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The take: PayNearMe and Aeropay are the segment's US names and will never meet Gigadat in a bid, since it sells nothing outside Canada. The shared lens is regulated North American money movement, and through it both US peers carry deeper license stacks than a Canadian incumbent whose RPAA registration is still pending. Gigadat's real rivals, Paybilt, Loonio, and Payper, live in the FAQ because none of them is in this directory yet.
Settlement & commercials
Gigadat prices per deal, so exact figures land in the contract rather than on a public rate card.
Bespoke per merchant, with multiple banking partners and services tailored around each client the only public signals (May 2025).
Everything commercial is a BD conversation. No pricing, setup, minimums, reserves, contract terms, or volume figures exist anywhere, an unusual level of darkness even for this niche. The structural cost fact that survives the blackout: push-rail e-Transfer deposits carry no chargeback exposure by construction.
The deal
Money movement
Onboarding path
- 1Start at the gigadatsolutions.com contact form and pick the Business Development track, since no sales email, pricing, or documentation is published
- 2Expect bespoke onboarding with no published KYB timeline, and come ready to show your own player due diligence, which the COO names as the expectation at customer registration
- 3Scope the deposit flows with BD: standard Interac e-Transfer with its unique-ID manual step, Request Money, or FastPlay if you want registration, bank KYC, and the first deposit in one pass
- 4Plan payout rails across e-Transfer against the player's email or phone, eCashout ACH to any Canadian bank account, and the bank wire option
- 5Wire up the merchant tooling: pre-withdrawal validation, Autodeposit registration checks, and API refunds from the back office
- 6Test against the FAQ's real-world mechanics, Monday-to-Friday withdrawal processing and 24-hour e-Transfer windows, before you promise players anything real-time outside FastPlay
Support & account management
You can't demo service before you sign, so what a vendor puts in writing is the only floor you can hold it to.
Frequently asked
The things operators actually ask before signing.
What licenses does Gigadat actually hold?+
One registration. Gigadat Inc. is a FINTRAC-registered money services business, number M23430346, covering money transferring, virtual currency dealing, and payment service provider services, current through 2028-02-28. No gambling license applies, because Canadian regulators do not require one for pure payment processing, and AGCO's supplier categories do not cover payment processors. The open item is the Retail Payment Activities Act: Gigadat applied to the Bank of Canada on 2024-11-01 and the application stood In Review in July 2026. Transition-window applicants may keep operating, so that status is no violation, and the registration itself is the item to watch.
How fast are Gigadat payouts really?+
Two speeds, and both are real. FastPlay delivers a real-time withdrawal inside its own flow, which is the number the sales material leads with. The standard flow processes withdrawals Monday to Friday only, never on weekends or bank holidays, with the e-Transfer acceptance notice arriving the next day, per the consumer FAQ. Most players meet the standard flow, and weekend withdrawal waits are the gap players notice.
Does Gigadat run InstaDebit?+
No, and the two have zero corporate relationship. InstaDebit is the legacy consumer brand of Paramount Commerce, the Toronto company operating as Element Financial Technology Inc, which holds its own FINTRAC registration and reached Bank of Canada RPAA registration on 2025-10-10. Gigadat shares no entity, address, or registration with any of that. They do compete: Paramount's current flagship is Instant Bank Transfer, another bank-rail product fighting for the same Canadian cashier slots.
Who is challenging Gigadat in the Canadian Interac lane?+
Three names matter (Jul 2026). Paybilt (legal entity Bilt Commerce, Toronto) registered with the Bank of Canada on 2025-10-16 and sells push-to-card breadth Gigadat lacks, with its predecessor entity Bilt Services migrated onto Bilt Commerce in late 2025. Loonio (2337736 Alberta Inc., Edmonton) registered on 2025-10-07, runs the trade name Interac by Loonio, and adds a Trustly-style bank-login flow with an e-signed PAD agreement. Payper sits in the same boat as Gigadat, In Review since November 2024. Both young challengers are registered while both incumbent gaming-Interac specialists still wait.
Which operators use Gigadat?+
No public roster exists. Gigadat names zero clients anywhere, and operators do not disclose their Interac routing, so the relationships stay invisible by both sides' choice. In practice the rail sits behind a large share of Canadian Interac cashiers, visible at the cashier level rather than in announcements, so reference checks have to run through your own network.
How much does Gigadat charge?+
Nothing is published anywhere: no rates, no setup fee, no minimums, no reserve or contract terms, and no volume figures that would let you back into pricing. The CEO's public phrasing is highly competitive pricing with services tailored around each client, which points at bespoke per-merchant deals. The structural cost fact that survives: e-Transfer deposits are push payments with no chargeback mechanism, which removes a whole line from the risk budget.