Fireone a "mini NLR" floated today on AIM looks interesting with plenty of growth possibility..



Embargoed until 0800 2 June 2005

FireOne Group plc
('FireOne' or the 'Company')

First day of dealings on the AIM Market

FireOne, the provider of payment processing services for the online gaming
industry, announces that its entire issued ordinary share capital has today been
admitted to trading on the AIM market of London Stock Exchange plc
('Admission'), under the ticker symbol 'FPA'.

As part of the flotation, Numis Securities Limited placed 10,000,000 ordinary
shares at 241 pence per share (the 'Placing'), raising 24.1 million (before
expenses) in cash for Optimal Group Inc., the parent company, as a selling
shareholder. As at Admission, there are a total of 50,000,000 ordinary shares in
issue with a market capitalisation (at the 241 pence per ordinary share placing
price) of 120.5 million.

Mitch Garber, Executive Chairman of FireOne commented:
'We are very positive about the continued opportunities available to FireOne
within the growing online gaming industry and our admission to AIM, amongst
other respected leisure and gaming companies, is the next logical step in
FireOne's development.'

- Ends -

Enquiries:

FireOne +44 (0) 78 7023 4746
Ben Dalfen, Chief Operating Officer
David Schwartz, Chief Financial Officer

Numis Securities Ltd +44 (0) 20 7776 1500
Jag Mundi / Amer Khan / Andrew Burnett

Weber Shandwick Square Mile +44 (0) 20 7067 0700
Kirsty Raper / Nick Oborne / Susanne Walker

Notes to editors:

FireOne is a provider of payment processing services for the online
gaming industry, providing the operators of online casinos, poker rooms and
sports books (including Sportingbet/Paradise Poker, Casino on Net (
www.888.com
)
and PartyPoker.com) and their customers with a secure, convenient and
cost-effective system to collect, deposit and withdraw funds.

As at 31 March 2005, the business was providing its services to over 300
online gaming operators, representing approximately 1,500 websites.

For the 12 months ended 31 December 2004, the business delivered profit
before tax of US$14.8 million on turnover of US$43.0 million. Unaudited results
for the three months ended 31 March 2005, show profit before tax of US$6.0
million and turnover of US$14.9 million.

Since the mid-1990s, revenues in the online gaming industry have grown
at approximately 35 per cent. per year to exceed US $7 billion in 2004. This
figure represents only 3 per cent. of the total worldwide land-based and
internet gaming market and these revenues are expected to show significant
growth in the next few years.

The Placing shares represent 20 per cent. of the issued share capital of
the Company, with the balance being retained by Optimal Group Inc. ('OGI') and
one of its subsidiaries. OGI is a leading payments and services company, based
in Montreal, Canada; its shares are quoted on NASDAQ (OPMR:NAS). Prior to the
Placing, FireOne was a wholly owned subsidiary of OGI. The Company has not
raised any new funds as the Directors believe that the FireOne is able to
finance its operations from its existing cashflow.

The Directors believe that the Placing and Admission will give FireOne
focus and increased autonomy from OGI; greater profile and status; and greater
prominence in Europe for future growth.

Nlr down as well--seems PRTY figures disappointed the market so any excuse to hammer gaming companies!!

Extraordinary treatment of FireOne by the MM's today. At one point it was 398-403p !!!
Now 425-432p

K******

Seems like gaming companies are not all that promising...maybe downtrend from here especially when Partygaming has issue poor profits

Don't agree hlyeo,, PRTY said that growth had slowed ,and then the whole gaming sector gets hammered , i'm surprised it dragged NLR and FPA as far down as it did ...

Slower growth means poorer profit rise...PRTY down by 33% today to 105p

PartyGaming lost some of its recent sparkle after releasing interim results today as it said the rate of growth in the poker market is moderating.

House broker Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein cut its price target to 150p from 210p, noting that its growth outlook now appears to be lower than we initially forecast.

Read my post above ,,i'm more refering to NLR and FPA ..

The fact is that FPA and NLR just provide the means for all of these online gamblers to transfer money between accounts (and take quite a large commission) for doing so. Their business is not reliant on just PartyGaming clients - any online gaming company needs to use NLR and FPA.
So whilst the likes of PartyGaming, SportingBet etc etc have been hammered by the announcement, the fact that FPA and NLR have also been marked down so heavily suggests a complete over reaction.

K******

Who's still in? Are we heading for a graceful decline on this one?

I'm out stockdog,, bought in on the day of float and it's been a good one ,i shall keep watching in case it does a NETELLER ..

I'm still in sd

Dogs of war!

Bear raid on gaming i think !

MM's savagely cutting on few sales 5p at a time ............whats up?????

Going down in sympathy is all i can think of ,,unless you know any different??

.

dropping to 400p now - further downtrend on the way.

downtrend or tree-shake?

See how NLR and FPA are matching each other in rise .........are MM's the same ??????

So what's rattled FPA's cage to cause it to drop throgh the floor today? I see NML is almost level.