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LONDON (AFX) - PartyGaming PLC sees full-year profit beating analysts' forecasts after it signed up more poker players and launched new casino-style games. Shares in the world's biggest online gaming group jumped.

Average daily gross poker revenues rose 14 pct to 2.7 mln usd in the two months to November, while the company said as many as 40 pct of its poker players are now also playing blackjack, one of the recently introduced games.

'Our business has continued to perform well across the board during the fourth quarter with both our poker and casino businesses showing strong growth,' chief executive Richard Segal said.

PartyGaming (LSE: PRTY.L) shares rose 11 pence, or 9.4 pct, to 128 by 12.45 am, valuing the company at just over 5 bln stg.

'To get 40 pct of their customers playing blackjack just two months after launch is pretty impressive. It suggests there's still plenty of growth to come from cross-selling products,' said Daniel Stewart & Co analyst James Hollins.

House broker Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein raised its full-year underlying pretax profit forecast 4 pct to 536 mln usd.

PartyGaming stock has had a turbulent ride since being sold at 116 pence in June. It hit a high of 179.5 pence the following month before plunging to a low of 67 in September after the company warned of weaker-than-expected revenue growth.

PartyGaming responded on Oct 8 with a contentious decision to ringfence its own gambling platform from that used by partners including Empire Online PLC.

Segal said the company remained on track to gain 800,000 new active punters this year after signing up 2,455 per day in the two months to October.

He added that the company's casino business had experienced a 'marked uplift' since the Oct 8 decision. On a call with reporters he refused to say whether the company had been capturing former Empire Online (LSE: EOL.L) punters.

Empire Online was forced to warn of a marked slowdown in rake generated by its EmpirePoker.com business on Oct 18 as punters flocked to its rival's websites in search of a larger pool of competitors.

Empire on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in a Gibraltar court against PartyGaming, claiming 'substantial' damages.
Segal repeated that he was 'highly confident' of a successful outcome to the case.

PartyGaming said customer acquisition costs had remained broadly stable in the latest two months.