Neutrino event rates from gamma-ray bursts

We recalculate the diffuse flux of high-energy neutrinos produced by gamma-ray bursts in the relativistic fireball model. Although we confirm that the average single burst produces only similar to 10(-2) high-energy neutrino events in a detector with a 1 km(2) effective area, i.e., about 10 events yr(-1), we show that the observed rate is dominated by burst-to-burst fluctuations that are very large. We find event rates that are expected to be larger by 1 order of magnitude, likely more, which are dominated by a few very bright bursts. This greatly simplifies their detection.