How and when did the word "points" become a common term for the thing that is used to quantify a victory?

by DannyPizza
Searocksandtrees

On the question of when, you can find that in a good dictionary; the Online Etymology Dictionary says:

... Meaning "a unit of score in a game" is first recorded 1746. ...

If you don't get more information here, you might try x-posting to /r/etymology