Online gaming firm PartyGaming has signed up a record number of new poker players in the fourth quarter and is on track to become the world's biggest online casino.

The operator of the PartyPoker website, the world's biggest online poker room, said group sales rose 65 per cent to £180 million in the fourth quarter, prompting analysts to upgrade their full-year forecasts.

PartyGaming shares rose 3.1 per cent to 150 pence on Friday, following gains of nine per cent since the start of the year as the gaming industry shrugs off scepticism with a series of bold statements and forecast-beating updates.

PartyPoker signed up over 229,000 new players, nearly a third of them from outside the United States. The company has been trying to reduce its dependency on the US market due to the legal ambiguity of doing business there.

House broker Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein said it was upgrading its earnings forecasts by 1.8 per cent for 2005 and 2.9 per cent for 2006.

Analyst Charles Wilson at Bridgewell also said he was likely to upgrade forecasts after casino sales of £46 million beat year-ago figures by more than 600 per cent, boosted by PartyGaming cross-selling blackjack to its PartyPoker players.

"The success of blackjack has transformed our casino business," said chief executive officer Richard Segal. "Through effective cross-selling to our large customer base we are well on the way to creating the world's largest online casino."

PartyGaming's casino ambitions put 888.com in its sights, although there is no clear leader in the sector.

It said the group's total number of players rose 62 per cent compared to a year ago, and the average player was spending $17.9, up eight per cent from the third quarter.