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.

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.

Stockdog, do you mean NLR? Do you still own these? I'm glad I sold out at the peak and put all the funds in NLR.

Don't know , i sold out a while back , i'm glad it didn't take NLR down with it ,,SBT has results on 12th Oct ,,i wonder what they will be ?? ,the gaming sector does'nt need more bad results like PRTY,,it seems to have a domino affect.

yes, I meant NLR

The latest announcement from NLR was very good (signing up 2 millionth customer etc.) so I would have thought it is a reasonable assumption that FPA isn't doing too badly either (even if not as go-go as NLR !!).
So it was difficult to understand yesterdays savage markdown.
However it seems to be reversing the loss very nicely today.

K******

Krypton - thanks for news on NLR - let's hope it rubs off.

mercifully - should have skipped out on the last bounce up, but was too busy to trade that day - it was always a spec trade for me, not a long term hold, so doubly miffed I screwed it up.

live and learn

sd

I think it it may bounce back stockdog, as will NLR ..

yes, but which way??!!

UP !!! ..

Afternoon everyone,
Anybody still holding these ?
I picked up another 555 this morning as the results are due next week and cannot see why they should not be anything but excellent.
I think the fallout from PRTY and Empire has now subsided enough to do a spot of bargain hunting.

K******

Well krypton ,i sold out a little while back but NLR is coming back strongly today so maybe your right .I will be interested in the results myself.

I have only just noticed this announcement from the Nasdaq site. It dates from 10 October and is, of course, from FireOne's parent company (still holding 80%).

Optimal Group Inc. (NASDAQ:OPMR) increased its financial guidance for Q3 of 2005. Optimal now anticipates that its underlying earnings before income taxes and non-controlling interest will be in excess of $10.6 million for Q3. Optimal's original guidance for this period was for underlying earnings before income taxes and non-controlling interest to be approximately $9.8 million.

Barring any general disaster in the markets I am now very very optimistic for the FPA results on the 8th November.

Mono

Hi Mono

Thanks for that bit of news - excellent !!!!!
Now very much looking forward to the results (also impressed by the relative strength of FPA compared to Neteller the last few days).

K******

It looks as though the run up in the share price (ahead of the results next week) has well and truly begun this afternoon.
Neteller will be doing a 3rd quarter update on Monday which will give a good idea of what to expect from FireOne next Thursday.

All the same it is looking very good.

Mono