A Chicago-based website is now offering Lawrence a way to make a bit of money during big game weekends while bringing out-of-towners into the community.

Rent Like a Champion is a business that allows homeowners who live on or near college campuses to rent out their digs to anyone coming into town, said CEO Mike Doyle.

Rentals average around $700 per night, Doyle said. The homeowners get to keep a chunk of the profit while the business collects a small fee.

“But those are homes that are typically sleeping seven or eight people,” he said. “And taking into account the convenience of having a kitchen and a living room, being able to walk to campus and skip traffic and not worry about parking.”

Originally the business began in South Bend, Ind., where the company saw a wide gap between the number of people coming into town to watch Notre Dame football games and the number of rooms available at the local hotels, Doyle said.

Now the company has expanded to include a total of 21 college markets across the country, and it’s looking to keep growing, Doyle said.

At the end of October the company appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” and received a total investment of $200,000 from Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca. Doyle said the company hopes to use the money to expand into another 20 markets.

“Clearly the model works for football games, but we wanted to know if we could try this for basketball weekends as well,” he said. “We’ve already received interest from dozens of homeowners in Lawrence, and our hope is that for this basketball season we will be able to do rentals in Lawrence.”

Interested homeowners simply need to head to www.rentlikeachampion.com, answer some basic questions and add a few photos before they’re ready to start renting, Doyle said. Requesting dates for people looking to travel is just as easy, he said.

While the website is now ready to accept Lawrence homeowners and renters looking for a place to stay in town, Doyle said the business is also open to other uses in the future.

Rather than limiting themselves to college game days prospective renters can ask for any other day of the year, Doyle said. This way anyone coming into town for a wedding, reunion, vacation or anything in between might have a place to stay.