Options Sponsor St. Patrick’s Day SPAR Craic 10k Run In Association with Aisling Events

LONDON & NEW YORK & HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Options Technology, the leading Capital Markets services provider, today announced their Race Partner sponsorship of the St. Patrick’s Day SPAR Craic 10k, hosted by Aisling Events and Athletics NI.

The run, which has been held as part of Belfast City Council’s all-inclusive celebration of the National Saints’ Day, is returning to Belfast City Hall in 2022 following a virtual event in 2021.

A focal point in any Northern Irish runners’ calendar, upwards of 2,000 people take part in the race annually, running from Belfast City Hall to the finish line at Ormeau Park.

Options, a global company with offices in eight key financial cities worldwide, first opened in Belfast in 2014, and teams from Options’ Belfast headquarters have taken part in the SPAR Craic 10k event since the inaugural run in 2015.

Danny Moore, Options’ President, and CEO said, “The team at Options love a physical challenge. In 2020 we ran around the world while working remotely; in 2021 we completed the Mourne 7-peaks challenge, and we have been involved in the Belfast Marathon and SPAR Craic 10k runs since our Belfast office first opened. The next logical step was to get involved as a Race Partner sponsor.

We are ecstatic to be back to in-person running events and can’t wait for the buzz around the city on race day.”

Connla McCann, Director of the SPAR Craic 10k added, “St. Patrick's Day is a very special occasion for the Irish around the world, and we are delighted to be holding the SPAR Craic 10k again. With more runners than ever before, we plan to make 17^th March a day to remember as we return to the streets of Belfast and, hopefully, will have left the pandemic in our wake."

Today’s news comes as the latest in a series of developments for Options, including the creation of 150 jobs in Belfast following the acquisition of ACTIV Financial, expansion into Canada with the Toronto Office Opening, and Festive donation to fund the NI Children’s Hospice over the Christmas holidays.

About Options (www.options-it.com):

Options Technology is the No. 1 provider of IT infrastructure to global Capital Markets firms, supporting their operations and ecosystems.

Founded in 1993, the firm began life as a hedge fund technology services provider. Today, the company provides high-performance managed trading infrastructure and cloud-enabled managed services to over 550 firms globally, providing an agile, scalable platform in an Investment Bank grade Cybersecurity wrapper.

Options clients include the leading global investment banks, hedge funds, funds of funds, proprietary trading firms, market makers, broker/dealers, private equity houses and exchanges. With offices in 8 key cities; New York, Toronto, Chicago, London, Belfast, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand, Options are well placed to service their customers both on-site and remotely.

In 2019, Options secured a significant growth investment from Abry Partners, a Boston-based sector-focused private equity firm. This investment has enabled Options to considerably accelerate its growth strategy to invest further in its technology platform and expand its reach in key financial centres globally.

Options has been named among the UK’s leading growth companies in the 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017 Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table.

For more on Options, please visit www.options-it.com, follow us on Twitter at @Options_IT and visit our LinkedIn page.

About Abry Partners (www.abry.com)

Abry is one of the most experienced and successful sector-focused private equity investment firms in North America. Since its founding in 1989, the firm has completed over $82 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity or preferred equity placements. Currently, the firm manages over $5.0 billion of capital across their active funds.