On April 1, 2010, Rackets were replaced by Properties. This article describes the obsolete Racket feature.
Rackets were a replacement for Properties for some beta accounts. There were tiers that opened up after you mastered the first tier of each racket. For example, when you mastered the Three-Card Monte racket, a new tier opened up called Backroom Poker. Mastered that and Executive Game opened up and so on and so forth. You had to return to collect on the racket after it was completed or it got busted by the cops and you lost the money and the influence.
The Attack, Defense and Job rackets each generated an initial count per instance, until the job was mastered. After mastering, you were then awarded an additional boost each time you collected the racket. For example, the Taxi Stand Racket initially generated two Free Ride boosts every four hours. After you had mastered the racket you were awarded with three Free Ride boosts every four hours.
(For Racket Strategies, see Racket Management)
How using Influence for Rackets works
Rackets come in four flavors: Cash, Attack Boosts, Defensive Boosts, Job Boosts. Each Racket requires you invest Influence into it and then wait for a specified amount of time for the Racket to finish. Once the timer expires and the Racket is complete, you get back your Influence investment + the reward (cash or boost).
It's important to think of these Rackets as investments (rather than purchases) because you get 100% of your Influence back when you collect on the Racket. This is important because you only GAIN 1pt of Influence every hour. You don't get a refill on level ups like you do with Energy and Stamina.
So in other words, it would take you 24 real-time hours to GAIN 24 pts of Influence. So getting back your Influence investment by collecting is absolutely critical to being successful at Racketeering.
However, once a Racket is ready to collect, you have a very limited amount of time to collect on the racket before it is "busted" and you lose your Influence investment. Given the slow regen timer on Influence, the Influence loss from a "busted" job is much more hurtful than losing the cash or extra boost.
Influence Skill Points
When you increase your Influence skill, you increase the amount of Influence you can "hold" at one time. The maximum amount you can you hold is 25% greater (rounded down) than the number of skill points you have invested. So if you have 20 Influence skill points, you can "hold" up to 25 Influence points at one time (25/20). However, just like an Energy Pack, you stop GAINING pts from the regen timer if your current Influence is greater than the amount of pts you have invested.
This means that with 20 skill points, the largest Racket you could invest in would have a 25 point cost. If the Racket you want to invest in has an Influence cost greater than that amount, then you'll need to increase the number of skill points. Otherwise, if it is equal to or less than 25, there is little reason to invest more skill points into Influence. This is critical because investing skill points above that number is wasteful and they could be better spent elsewhere.
Re-Investing Influence
The reason this is wasteful is because if you manage it correctly, you'll never exceed 24 pts. Lets say that the Racket you use most often requires 16 Influence. You would invest that 16 Influence into a Racket.
The regen timer ticks away gaining you additional Influence. When it reaches 16 again, you invest in a second Racket. Then you collect on your original Racket, gaining back the original 16 investment and immediately re-investing it back into a new Racket.
As long as your Rackets don't bust, your total amount of Influence invested in Rackets continues to increase. The only limitation is the total number of Rackets you have at the same time (based on the number of slots purchased - 20 max).
Collecting Rackets and Avoiding Busts
The listed time until ready for each racket is slightly longer than the actual time until the rewards can be collected. In fact, rackets only require approximately 90% of the listed time to completion. A 4 hour racket is actually ready to collect in 3.6 hours (i.e. 3 hours 36 minutes).
Once a racket is complete, you have a specific amount of time to collect that racket before it is busted and you lose the invested influence and its reward. The time to bust for each racket is based on its time to completion. For the 4 hour rackets, the time to bust is approximately 7.2 hours (i.e. 180% of 4 hours). This means that from the moment you invest into a racket, you have between 3.6 hours and 10.8 hours to collect the payout (3.6 + 7.2 = 10.8). If you started such a racket at 8:00am, the racket will be ready at around 11:36am and will go bust at around 6:48pm.
| Time until ready | Actual time | + Time to bust | = Total time to bust |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 hours | 3.6 hours | 7.2 hours | 10.8 hours |
| 8 hours | 7.2 hours | 14.4 hours | 21.6 hours |
| 1 day | 21.6 hours | 43.2 hours | 64.8 hours |
| 2 days | 43.2 hours | 86.4 hours | 129.6 hours |
| 3 days | 64.8 hours | 129.6 hours | 194.4 hours |
Influence Rackets
Rackets Rewarding Cash
Rackets ready in four hours
| Name | Three-Card Monte | Backroom Poker | Executive Game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image | 
|
|
|
| How to unlock | Unlocked | Master Three-Card Monte | Master Backroom Poker |
| Payout | $6,600 | $330,000 | $39,000,000 |
| Payout per hour | $1,650/h | $82,500/h | $9,750,000/h |
| Mastered Payout | $10,000 | $495,000 | $58,500,000 |
| Mastered Payout per hour | $2,500/h | $123,750/h | $14,625,000/h |
| Cost | 5 Influence | 16 Influence | 38 Influence |
| Time until ready | 4h | 4h | 4h |
| Mastery Percentage | 6% (17 times) | 3% (34 times) | 1% (100 times) |
Rackets ready in eight hours
| Name | Numbers Racket | Illegal Sportsbook | Fixed Horserace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image | 
|
|
|
| How to unlock | Unlocked | Master Numbers Racket | Master Illegal Sportsbook |
| Payout | $5,200 | $576,000 | $76,000,000 |
| Payout per hour | $650/h | $72,000/h | $9,500,000/h |
| Mastered Payout | $15,600 | $864,000 | $114,000,000 |
| Mastered Payout per hour | $1,950/h | $108,000/h | $14,250,000/h |
| Cost | 7 Influence | 21 Influence | 53 Influence |
| Time until ready | 8h | 8h | 8h |
| Mastery Percentage | 12% (9 times) | 3% (34 times) | 2% (50 times) |
Rackets ready in twenty-four hours
| Name | Strip Club | Massage Parlor | Escort Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image | 
|
|
|
| How to unlock | Unlocked | Master Strip Club | Master Massage Parlor |
| Payout | $15,000 | $900,000 | $110,000,000 |
| Payout per hour | $681/h | $40,909/h | $5,000,000/h |
| Mastered Payout | $22,600 | $1,350,000 | $165,000,000 |
| Mastered Payout per hour | $1,027/h | $61,363/h | $7,500,000/h |
| Cost | 10 Influence | 26 Influence | 75 Influence |
| Time until ready | 24h | 24h | 24h |
| Mastery Percentage | 10% (10 times) | 4% (25 times) | 3% (34 times) |
Rackets ready in forty-eight hours
| Name | Customs Scam | Import/Export Scam | Dockyard Scam |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image | 
|
|
|
| How to unlock | Level 8 to unlock | Master Customs Scam | Master Import/Export Scam |
| Payout | $25,000 | $1,500,000 | $170,000,000 |
| Payout per hour | $568/h | $34,090/h | $3,863,636/h |
| Mastered Payout | $37,600 | $2,250,000 | $255,000,000 |
| Mastered Payout per hour | $855/h | $51,136/h | $5,795,454/h |
| Cost | 17 Influence | 44 Influence | 128 influence |
| Time until ready | 48h | 48h | 48h |
| Mastery Percentage | 12% (9 times) | 5% (20 times) | 2% (50 times) |
Rackets ready in seventy-two hours
| Name | Crooked Rental | Crooked High-rise | Crooked Suburb |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image | 
|
|
|
| How to unlock | Level 12 to unlock | Master Crooked Rental | Master Crooked High-rise |
| Payout | $36,000 | $2,200,000 | $245,000,000 |
| Payout per hour | $553/h | $33,846/h | $3,769,230/h |
| Mastered Payout | $54,000 | $3,300,000 | $368,000,000 |
| Mastered Payout per hour | $830/h | $50,769/h | $5,661,538/h |
| Cost | 25 Influence | 66 Influence | 188 Influence |
| Time until ready | 72h | 72h | 72h |
| Mastery Percentage | 18% (6 times) | 5% (20 times) | 3% (34 times) |
Rackets Rewarding Boosts
Attack Rackets
| Name | Hardware Store | Knife Shop | Gun Shop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image | 
|
|
|
| How to unlock | Level 25 to unlock | Master Hardware Store | Master Knife Shop |
| Payout (Mastered) | Handy Man x3 (x4) | Throwing Knives x3 (x4) | Hollow Point x3 (x4) |
| Cost | 10 Influence | 26 Influence | 75 Influence |
| Time until ready | 24h | 24h | 24h |
| Mastery Percentage | 7% (15 times) | 4% (25 times) | 2% (50 times) |
Defense Rackets
| Name | Garbage Dump | Scrapyard | Toxic Waste Dump |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image | 
|
|
|
| How to unlock | Level 30 to unlock | Master Garbage Dump | Master Scrapyard |
| Payout (Mastered) | Boxer x3 (x4) | Bullmastiff x3 (x4) | Mr. Hot Sauce x3 (x4) |
| Cost | 17 Influence | 44 Influence | 128 Influence |
| Time until ready | 48h | 48h | 48h |
| Mastery Percentage | 7% (15 times) | 4% (25 times) | 2% (50 times) |
Job Rackets
| Name | Taxi Stand | Trucking Company | Shipping Company |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image | 
|
|
|
| How to unlock | Level 40 to unlock | Master Taxi Stand | Master Trucking Company |
| Payout (Mastered) | Free Ride x2 (x3) | Truck Driver x2 (x3) | Political Favor x2 (x3) |
| Cost | 5 Influence | 16 Influence | 38 Influence |
| Time until ready | 4h | 4h | 4h |
| Mastery Percentage | 7% (15 times) | 4% (25 times) | 2% (50 times) |
Cash Rackets
Rackets Rewarding Cash
Gambling
| Name | Three-Card Monte | Backroom Poker | Executive Game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image |
|
|
|
| How to unlock | Unlocked | Level 10 to unlock | level 45 to unlock |
| Payout | $500 | $50,000 | $14,000,000 |
| Payout per hour | $6,000/h | $6,250/h | $583,333/h |
| Cost | $250 | $20,000 | $7,000,000 |
| Return per hour | $3,000/h | $3,750/h | $291,667/h |
| Time until ready | 5m | 8h | 24h |
Betting
| Name | Numbers Racket | Illegal Sportsbook | Fixed Horserace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image |
|
|
|
| How to unlock | Unlocked | Level 25 to unlock | level 30 to unlock |
| Payout | $16,000 | $800,000 | $65,000 |
| Payout per hour | $667/h | $66,667/h | $65,000/h |
| Cost | $8,000 | $400,000 | $25,000 |
| Return per hour | $333/h | $33,333/h | $40,000/h |
| Time until ready | 24h | 12h | 1h |
Women
| Name | Strip Club | Massage Parlor | Escort Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image |
|
|
|
| How to unlock | Unlocked | Level 20 to unlock | level 50 to unlock |
| Payout | $1,500 | $8,000 | $3,200,000 |
| Payout per hour | $500/h | $24,000/h | $640,000/h |
| Cost | $500 | $3,000 | $1,200,000 |
| Return per hour | $333/h | $20,000/h | $400,000/h |
| Time until ready | 3h | 15m | 5h |
Miscellaneous
| Name | Crooked Tenement | Dockyard Scam |
|---|---|---|
| Image |
|
|
| How to unlock | Level 15 to unlock | Level 40 to unlock |
| Payout | $750,000 | $4,500,000 |
| Payout per hour | $15,625/h | $93,750/h |
| Cost | $250,000 | $1,500,000 |
| Return per hour | $10,417/h | $62,500/h |
| Time until ready | 48h | 48h |
Racket Locations
Each racket needs to go into a location or spot. You start with two "free" slots in Little Italy which will allow you to run two rackets. If you would like to run more rackets, then you need to purchase additional slot locations.
There are four tiers that can each hold five locations for your rackets. This means that you can run up to 20 rackets concurrently if you have purchased all 20 locations.
The locations themselves become progressively more expensive and while the name of the tier implies a better location, the rackets themselves produce the same amount whether they are invested in Little Italy or at the Upper East Side.
The middle column shows the expansion costs for influence characters and the right column gives the costs for all other characters.
| Little Italy | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1st slot | Free | Free |
| 2nd slot | Free | Free |
| 3rd slot | $5,000 | $50,000 |
| 4th slot | $10,000 | $100,000 |
| 5th slot | $25,000 | $250,000 |
| Hell's Kitchen | ||
| 1st slot | $50,000 | $500,000 |
| 2nd slot | $100,000 | $1,000,000 |
| 3rd slot | $150,000 | $2,000,000 |
| 4th slot | $250,000 | |
| 5th slot | $500,000 | |
| Bensonhurst | ||
| 1st slot | $750,000 | |
| 2nd slot | $1,000,000 | |
| 3rd slot | $1,500,000 | |
| 4th slot | $3,000,000 | |
| 5th slot | $5,000,000 | |
| Upper East Side | ||
| 1st slot | $10,000,000 | |
| 2nd slot | $50,000,000 | |
| 3rd slot | $100,000,000 | |
| 4th slot | $500,000,000 | |
| 5th slot | $1,000,000,000 | |
Property Owners
Originally, Rackets were meant to be rolled out to everyone. However, as of February 2010, Properties and Rackets had been replaced with the new Properties.