"Huge potential profit" vs. "huge profit potential"

What is the proper usage — "huge potential profit" or "huge profit potential"?


Huge Potential Profit

We are talking about a profit. It is only a potential profit. That potential profit is huge.

Huge Profit Potential

We are talking about a potential. That potential is for profit. That potential is huge.

They overlap, and we might sometimes use either, though there is a difference.

Most state and national lotteries have a huge potential profit, because if you do win you can receive a return of millions of times more than you spent. However, we would not describe that as a huge profit potential, because the potential covers both the likelihood and the return, and the likelihood of winning a lottery is minute.

Conversely, an investment that had a slight chance of returning a huge profit, a strong chance of doubling the amount invested in a couple of years, and only a tiny chance of not returning any profit, would have a huge profit potential, because the overall potential—considering likelihood as well as return—is huge.

As they mean different, albeit overlapping, things, either might be used, though the latter is more often how one would explain an endeavour.