UPDATE 1-IG sees FY profit up 25 pct on market volatility

* Sees adj FY pretax profit 157 mln stg vs 125.9 mln in 09

* Revenue 298 mln vs 257.1 mln

(Adds details)

LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - Britain's largest spread-betting company IG Group (IGG.L) said it will report an underlying profit for 2010 up by a quarter helped by increased volatility in forex and equity markets.

The company, which takes spread bets on financial markets allowing customers to benefit from falling as well as rising prices, said it had benefited from unstable markets in the last few weeks of the year, boosting client activity and the rate of new accounts opening.

IG said it expects to report an underlying pretax profit of 157 million pounds ($228 million) for the year ending May 31, up from 125.9 million last year, and ahead of analyst expectations.

Group revenue is expected to be 16 percent higher at 298 million pounds, helped by a 65 percent hike in revenues at its Australian business and UK revenues - its largest market - seen rising by 8 percent to 165 million.

"The final quarter, despite starting with low levels of volatility, showed strong revenue growth, up 24 percent on the corresponding period of the previous year," said the group in a trading statement on Wednesday.

Account opening in the final quarter rose to 21,500 new accounts compared with 18,750 in the same period a year ago.

The group repeated that it is in talks with a number of brokers in the U.S. with regards its unit Nadex, which recently gained the green light from regulator, but it will be "some months before these arrangements come to fruition", it added. [ID:nLDE630068]

(Reporting by Lorraine Turner, editing by Sarah Young) ($1=.6926 Pound)